


The Opposite of Falling

by Nike



Series: Big Heroes [3]
Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: And villains getting in each others way, Asexuality, Developing Relationship, F/M, Gen, Mary Ito is Marys Iosama, Relationship Trouble, Rivalry, Setting some stuff up for later too, Too much plotting, lots of plotting, more kidnapping, transgender OC, will add more as necessary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-02
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-02 14:27:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4063348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nike/pseuds/Nike
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Hiro Hamada first met Mary Ito, he quickly decided he didn't like her.  But feelings can change, especially when several villainous plots collide and end up threatening their friends and family.  Now he somehow has to keep them alive and in one piece while stuck alone in his civilian identity.</p><p>If only she wasn't crushing on Tadashi...</p><p>Big Heroes #3</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Changing Tides

**Author's Note:**

> _I remember feeling the opposite of falling._ \- Absolution Calling by Incubus

Chapter One - Changing Tides

The first week after the now infamous roller derby felt like the worst week of Hiro's life at the time. In retrospect, it had just been busy as hell during a time when he'd just wanted to curl up and deal with the mental and emotional fallout of what had happened, although it was also the time when a lot of different things changed. While SFIT had given him and Tadashi the week off, there was the lab transfer and their friends being busy trying to get theirs transferred as well which meant if they went to SFIT even without having to worry about classes, there was still having to spend time organizing their new labs or helping their friends move theirs. At home, Aunt Cass's café was being slammed by reporters, well-wishers, 'concerned' citizens, and various other busybodies and rubberneckers. It still surprised Hiro that Aunt Cass had found time to schedule and take them to their first appointments with the psychiatrist Detective Mazda had suggested.

Then there were the interviews. Hiro and Tadashi very quickly found out about the sign Aunt Cass had put up advertising for help just before the incident and quickly got very good at quick background checks. The first person to try and take advantage of the sign had been a reporter who'd taken advantage of the interview process to try and grill Aunt Cass for information. Aunt Cass had summarily kicked them out of the café and banned them from entering ever again. The others weren't reporters - except for the one who definitely didn't get past the background check and was also quickly banned - but they did seem more interested in the potential fame of working in the Lucky Cat than in actually working and one of them was a tech thief they were forced to make empty out his pockets before also banning him.

If they honestly didn't need the help, they probably would've have given up on hiring someone. But they did. Last night's Beat Poetry Night, always a big money maker for the café because of the standing deal that in exchange for staying open later than they normally did all of the customers had to buy at least one item, had what seemed like every single SFU student in attendance in addition to the regulars. They actually ran out of several items, despite Aunt Cass having anticipated there being a potentially large crowd. By the time they locked up for the night, they were all dead on their feet and Aunt Cass started crying as she tallied the register. Apparently they'd made more that night than in the entirety of last month.

It was because of all of this that, the next morning, Hiro froze in his act of bussing a table and got ready to flee to the kitchen or even upstairs after shooting off the first horrible non-excuse he could think of when a voice suddenly said, "Um, excuse me? Hello? I wanted to talk to you about your Help Wanted sign." Then Hiro did a double-take.

The person who'd spoken to get Hiro's attention was dressed in a style that Hiro wasn't certain was emo, goth, punk, or some combination thereof. Whatever it was, it involved longish black hair, androgynous looks, lots of black clothing that gave the impression of revealing while still concealing everything, and lots of chains and other jewelry, including a pewter dragon curling around one ear and a cross dangling from the other. They were also pulling it off, whatever the look was, because Hiro privately thought they looked kinda cool.

"Uh, yeah. You and everyone else on the block," Hiro stated without thinking before wincing. The person in front of him grimaced but nodded.

"I'll bet, but I'm on the up and up, I swear. I got dragged to the poetry night thing last night - I don't know if you recognize me, it was kind of crowded - but I noticed the sign and I've been looking for a job that doesn't, you know, care what I look like as long as I'm following the rules and getting the job done and this seemed like it might work. Besides, it looks like you could use the help."

"Huh," Hiro replied before calling out, "Hey, Aunt Cass? We've got another interview. I think this one might be legit!"

"Really?" Aunt Cass asked as she stuck her head out of the kitchen. "Oh thank God!" She disappeared for a second and then came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron before moving to shake the interviewee's hand.

"Cass Rudolph. I own the place. And you are?"

"Oh, uh, Yori Takagi, a man you can trust," he responded as he took her hand and gave it a firm shake. Hiro snorted.

"Don't say that to my brother," he requested.

"Say what?" Tadashi asked as he came out of the kitchen holding a tray of food that he swiftly distributed before coming over.

"Yori Takagi, a man you can trust," Yori repeated, shaking Tadashi's hand while giving Hiro a sly look only for it to turn to shock when Tadashi burst out laughing.

"Nice one! It's a pun based on the fact your name's a masculine one meaning 'trust', right?" Tadashi stated, beaming.

"Uh, yeah. Most people don't catch that," Yori replied. Tadashi nodded before moving back to work, ignoring Hiro's whispered, "Nerd."

"Is he for real?" Yori asked as Tadashi moved away.

"Unfortunately, yes," Hiro responded. Tadashi obviously heard them and gave them a fake pout. Hiro rolled his eyes so Tadashi put a hand on his head and firmly ruffled Hiro's hair as he walked back past with a tray full of dirty dishes.

"You're falling behind on bussing tables, shorty."

"Oi!"

"Boys," Aunt Cass sighed before turning back to her interviewee. "Shall we?"

They ended up hiring Yori. The background check showed he'd recently moved from a conservative area out east, was attending SFU as an undeclared major, and was actually a few months older than Tadashi. He was smart and picked things up fast and was a charmer to boot. Even Mrs. Matsuda liked Yori and she was notoriously picky. One of the reasons she was a regular to the Lucky Cat was because they found her sense of style amusing rather than grotesque or disturbing and had never once asked her to change. Yori hadn't even batted an eye before flirting with her the same way he did with everyone else he thought would be receptive, male or female. The rest, he was politely cheerful to, aggressively so if they irritated him. In fact, you could tell exactly how angry he was with someone by exactly how many teeth were showing. It tended to unnerve the offenders once he starting showing a few too many.

Hiro was just glad they'd found someone who could help out while he and Tadashi were busy at SFIT. His first day back at classes had been with the relieved knowledge that they weren't leaving Aunt Cass entirely on her own at the café. The second day probably would've been a great day as well if it hadn't been for _her_.

The board had taken their sweet time emailing them about moving their labs, apparently under the impression that they hadn't been hanging around campus and their friends just to get away from the media and had already rearranged the new labs to their liking. Honey Lemon, Gogo, and Wasabi were finishing up their own moves while Fred had taken advantage of the fact he was technically staff to break in and take over the breakroom of what the student body was starting to call the Hamada Lab.

The Lovelace Lab was smack dab in the center of campus, surrounded by gardens and one sole parking lot that was so hard to get in and out of that most people didn't bother. It required navigating a maze of other parking lots to even reach it and most students thought it was faculty-only while the faculty knew it wasn't so most people didn't try despite it being centrally located. The only people actually willing to run the gamut to park there didn't talk about it even to each other, although Fred was convinced the latter was because the people who actually parked there were in the middle of creating an elaborate secret language that consisted entirely of head nods. Sadly, Hiro halfway believed that theory.

Anyway, it was the classes that were currently the problem, specifically the World History one that had started off as a nightmare because a computer glitch had put the class before it as eleven-and-a-half hours long and majorly interfering with the rest of that day's schedule. Of course, Tadashi had helped him fix that mess ages ago but Hiro still complained about it because Gen Ed, ugh, and he no longer had an excuse for avoiding it. At least he had the sophomore-level robotics classes three days a week to make up for the fact Tuesdays and Thursdays were pretty much a bust aside from Open Lab.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad of a course. Just because a technology institute had general education classes didn't mean said classes weren't also tech oriented. Hiro had been pleasantly surprised when the World History I class had started off with Ancient Egyptian batteries and their likely usage (electroplating) and the likely tools and equations used to build the pyramids. And that was just the beginning. There had been discussions on the Antikythera mechanism and the stuff about the Banū Mūsā Brothers had both given him _so_ many ideas and that much more determination that one day classes like this one would be learning about the Hamada brothers.

"Mr. Hamada?"

Hiro jerked out of his daydreaming at stared at the professor who'd called on him with a deer-in-headlights expression because Professor Squires only used last names when she'd been trying to get a student's attention and failed previously. What was the question? Hell, what were they studying today?

"Uh..." he managed as he tried to figure out what he'd been asked based on the notes on the screen overhead.

"Al-Jazari, who's also considered the Father of Robotics as he invented the first programmable automata in the year twelve oh six," a young, female voice suddenly spoke up.

"That's correct, Mary. Hiro, can you stay to talk to me after class?"

"Uh, yes, Professor Squires," Hiro replied. Professor Squires nodded and went back to the lecture, leaving Hiro free to glare at the person who had interrupted before he could answer, never mind that he still had no clue as to what the question was. 

There was a girl there, about his own age, which made him blink because Hiro was pretty certain he'd never seen her before because he would've noticed another teenaged genius sharing one of his classes. She looked primarily Caucasian with brown hair tied up in big, face-framing pig tails and greenish-brown eyes, but there was a definite East-Asian cast to her features, particularly the shape of her eyes which he could barely see behind the large red frames of her glasses. She blinked in surprise when she realized he was glaring at her before she gave him a smug smile. Oh, it was _on_. Except then she ignored him for the rest of the lecture, which thankfully wasn't that much longer. After putting his stuff in his bag, Hiro approached the professor.

"Uh, hey, Professor. You wanted to see me?"

"That's right," Professor Squires agreed, glancing at the students filing out before quietly asking, "Are you sure you're okay to continue in class? You seem a bit distracted and I'd understand if you need a little more time."

"Huh? Oh, no! I'm fine. Really! It's just..." Hiro racked his brain for an excuse before mentally shrugging and asking, "Who was that girl? The one who answered the question?" He immediately regretted asking when Professor Squires' expression turned from worried to knowing and a little bit sly.

"Oh! That was Mary Ito. She was slated to attend Columbika until her father accepted a teaching job with us and then there was a bit of a scramble to transfer her over here. I think she's into the Computer Sciences, you know, designing new hardware and the programs to go with it. I must admit, I was a bit worried about nepotism when I heard we'd have to transfer her in order to get Dr. Ito in to replace Callaghan, but she's proven to be a rather adept student so far."

"Oh. Uh, thanks, Professor. Can I go now? I have Open Lab after this and Professor Sato's a stickler for making sure we're actually there for at least the minimum of hours and I'm a week behind on my project."

"Oh, right. Try not to be so distracted next class, okay?"

"Sure, Professor."

Two days later, when he found out Mary Ito was in his Calculus for Engineers class as well, Hiro quickly answered a question posed to her, determined to make up for the last class. Then he looked at Mary, who was glaring at him, and sparks flew, the type that causes wild fires and extensive damage to the surrounding areas.

Hiro had never had a rival before or, rather, had never had one that required any effort on his part. Tadashi was too much of a role model to be a rival, despite the teasing about his height and such and everyone else had been so far below Hiro it had been ridiculous. But now he was actually putting some effort into his Gen Ed requirement classes and it was all because of Mary Ito. There was no coasting if he wanted to keep a step ahead of her and even that wasn't always enough. She'd answer his question, he'd answer hers better; he'd get a ninety-nine on a pop quiz, she'd get a hundred. It was infuriating.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Grah!" Hiro cried out as he plopped face-down on the couch in the breakroom. Tadashi's eyebrows rose as he looked over from where he was making roasted barley tea. Gogo, who was downing an energy drink before running to her next class, lowered the drink long enough to say, "He's your brother" before booking it. Tadashi shook his head but propped himself up against the arm of the couch and asked, "What's wrong, buddy?"

"She's driving me nuts!" Hiro complained as he rolled over so he could look up at Tadashi.

"Who?" Tadashi asked with a slight frown. He hadn't noticed Hiro having any problems with Gogo or Honey Lemon, so who...?

"Mary Ito! She's in all my Gen Eds and she thinks she's so smart. Well, I'm smarter and I'll prove it!" Hiro threw himself to his feet, snatched up his bag, and stormed out.

"Huh. So that's why he's trying harder in those classes," Tadashi muttered to himself. Wasn't Mary Ito Professor Ito's daughter? Well, maybe a healthy challenge would be good for Hiro. With that thought, Tadashi drained his tea because he had class to get to as well. He would be surprised when he was stopped.

"Tadashi Hamada?" Tadashi turned to see a man in a military uniform and lots of stripes standing there. He tugged slightly on his messenger bag as he replied with a confused frown, "Yes? Can I help you?"

"I certainly hope so. General Schneider," the man replied, holding out his hand. Tadashi took it and shook it but was still frowning, wondering what the man wanted.

"My people are working on a project that San Fransokyo seems to be the leader of but whenever I ask around about autonomous mobile systems, I always end up being told to talk to you."

"Let me guess, someone at Krei Tech told you to talk to me."

"Yes, actually. You do know what I'm talking about, right?"

"Yes. You're talking about AIs in the military. I'm sorry, though, but the way I do the programming would make them useless to you."

"Come, now, I'm prepared to make you quite the offer, Mr. Hamada."

"The answer is _no_ , General Schneider."  
"But wouldn't it help people if the only ones involved in battle were robots?"

"That's assuming the battlefield is someplace where no one lives. No one fights over that kind of place. And how exactly would the other side have access to the robots unless you plan on selling them?" Tadashi asked with a sharp glare. There was an embarrassed pause while the general found his voice.

"Well, the opposition always manages to catch up eventually."

"The answer's still no. I created Baymax to help people and that's what he's going to do; by helping the sick and injured and not war hawks like you," Tadashi stated with a disgusted look at the man before storming away, making it clear his decision was final.

"Don't be a fool and throw away this opportunity, Mr. Hamada!" the general called as he quickly tried to catch up. "Someone will eventually figure it out anyway!"

"Maybe, but not from me," Tadashi replied. "Goodbye, General."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Initial contact went poorly, but I'm hoping that will change," General Schneider informed his contact.

"Hmm... We'll give you some more time, General, but if you do not make satisfactory progress, we will start moving other plans into play."

"Understood. Schneider out."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Got enough bleach?" Harry asked the slim young woman of Asian descent checking out through his register.

"I think so," she replied as she frowned calculatingly at her purchases. She was buying more than just bleach in bulk. The amount of cleaning chemicals was staggering.

"So what's it all for? Got a hugely messy house?" Harry asked, chatting as he scanned.

"I've just started running my own cleaning company!" the woman proudly announced before digging into her purse and pulling out a business card, one of those ones you could get like five hundred of on the cheap. Unlike most of the things given him, he tucked it away in a pocket. Then again, most of the things given to him were religious pamphlets from people who didn't even care enough to find out what religion Harry was much less that he already attended a church.

"Good luck," he said as she paid and left.

"Thanks."

A day later, Harry's eyebrows would rise again as an older man, also of Asian descent, who looked vaguely familiar for some reason came through his line with several clocks and watches. Seeing Harry's expression, the man admitted shamefacedly, "I keep loosing my watches. And I'm really rough on my alarm clocks. I kind of pound on the snooze button until I break them."

"Huh. Well, this looks like it might last you for awhile," Harry offered as he rang up the purchase.

"I hope so."

A few days later, while Harry and the other members of his church did their own evangelical work in the form of helping the poor, destitute, and needy, he saw Frederick Lee. Harry was one of the few people to know the kid was rich despite not looking it, mostly because Harry didn't actually need his job and his family ran in some of the same social circles as Fred's family. 

"Hey! How're you?" Harry asked as he fist bumped Fred.

"Great! And you, man?"

"Not too shabby. Hey, did you ever find someone to replace that maid? 'Cause I got a business card the other day from a girl starting up her own cleaning business. Bought a huge amount of cleaning supplies. You might want to look into it," Harry said as he offered the card.

"Thanks, man," Fred said as he took the card and then read it out loud. "'Happy Cleaners, Yuri Nakamura proprietor.' Nice. I'll definitely check it out."

Fred did check it out later that night and was oddly disappointed when he got a recording saying the number was disconnected.

"I hope it was a wrong number and not because they couldn't pay their phone bill. Oh well. I'll try again later." It wouldn't occur to him until much later that the company didn't actually exist.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"The Fujitas made bail," Mazda announced with no preamble at their first 'official' meeting as consultants for the San Fransokyo Police Department.

"What? How?" were the main questions in response. Tadashi had paled at the news and Honey Lemon didn't blame him considering one of the women in question had assaulted him.

"The how is pretty easy; a guy walked in and paid their bail. We think he's one of Yama's goons but can't prove it, so we had to allow it. Still, the judge refused to set a bail on Yama - too much of a flight risk - so he's not going anywhere just yet."

"Well, that's something," Wasabi agreed.

"Maybe, but I don't like that the Fujitas are all back out on the streets," Gogo stated darkly, unconsciously rubbing her shoulder despite it having healed well by all reports.

"Nor are we," Mazda admitted. "That's why we want to arrange for you to patrol as your superhero identities. Hopefully that will do one of two things: keep them from stepping out of line or freaking them out enough to try something before they're really prepared." There were several nods of agreement to that.

"I'm also arranging self-defense classes for all of you. You're tech's impressive but I want to make sure you know how to escape a hold and how to fall without hurting yourself. And then there's this."

A massive book hit the table with a thump.

"That's a big book," Hiro stated, wide-eyed.

"Yes, it is. This is the latest edition of all the rules and laws you'll need to be aware of if you're working with us."

"Wow, that's some fine print," Fred exclaimed as he cracked open the book.

"Yep. Lucky for you, you're all getting the electronic version. I'm sure one of you will figure out a way to program it into Baymax so he can quote it at you need because I'm certain at least one of you won't be reading this. I will insist you study at least the basics, however, and, yes, I will be testing you on this."

There were more groans as they accepted the USBs Mazda passed out. After going over various rules and expectations, Mazda finally wound down the meeting with, "Any questions for me?"

"Yeah, any advice on how to chase off reporters?" Hiro asked.

"Put up a No Trespassing sign," Mazda suggested. When Hiro gave her a look, she shrugged. "The bottom level of your house may be a business, but it's still private property and you have the right to insist people leave your property. At least, your aunt does. And you can call for assistance if they refuse."

"Thanks, I think," Hiro replied with a sigh.

"Sorry, kid, but that's one of the perils of fame."

They left soon after and Honey Lemon was please to note that Tadashi nudged Hiro's arm with an elbow and Hiro smirked and nudged him back. Honey Lemon just smiled. She was glad they seemed to be doing better after what had happened. They'd both been a bit jumpy and touch-shy for a few days after the kidnapping and Baymax had spilled that they both sometimes had nightmares. She hoped this was a sign things were turning around for the better.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Dinner had been good, great even, but a full stomach was making Hiro sleepy which was not helped by the fact patrol was _boring_. Flying around on Baymax, while cool, didn't constitute patrolling according to Mazda so instead they were kind of hovering over the others. Gogo had also expressed frustration until they figured out having Tadashi use the microbots to give Fred, Honey Lemon, and Wasabi a ride sped things up considerably. Some of the people they went by shot pictures but the highlight of the night was breakup up a drug deal and waiting for Mazda's people to pick up the perps.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Tadashi asked while the police picked up the drug dealers and Gogo berated Fred for rushing in without a plan.

"I dunno. I guess it just felt anti-climatic considering everything else we've done."

"I, for one, am glad about that," Wasabi announced.

"He's right," Fred surprisingly agreed, although it made sense when he added, "Now's the time to build our superhero reputation with the citizens of our fair city so they won't believe the bad guy when he tries to turn them against us!"

"What bad guy?" Honey Lemon asked Fred even as Gogo stated, "We're still recovering from our last adventure. Don't go borrowing trouble."

"Besides," Tadashi added, nudging his brother, "We're still making a difference."

Hiro glanced at the criminals being taken away.

"Yeah, I guess we are. Good job, guys."

He'd take a bit more pride in their patrols after that.

~*~*~*~*~*~

A second board had joined the picture-covered first. More pictures of the Big Heroes and the Hamadas had wandered over from the first board, but the main focus on the second board was a map of the city with some routes marked out in string. Notes theorized possible patrol patterns and times certain landmarks were likely to be passed. Most alarming of all was a note by one such marked neighborhood that stated, 'Bombs at this location ready to go.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I should be working on _Father Knows Best_ , but that story's depressing me for some reason right now so I ended up working on this one instead. 
> 
> Lots of new characters in this one, many of them working at cross purposes. Several are loosely based off of characters that show up in the comic the movie's loosely based on. Also, if you haven't guessed from the previous story, I don't tend to throw in characters unless they serve some purpose to the plot. If I did, you guys would've gotten a thing about Hiro and Tadashi's first session with their psychiatrist (which will probably show up as a one-shot instead considering I have most of that written).
> 
> Again, Mary Ito is actually Marys Iosama from the comics with a slight name change and updated to fit the BH6 movie-verse. She actually does have medium-light brown hair and greenish-hazel eyes in the comics, despite her father being obviously Japanese. The implication is obviously that, while being of Japanese descent, there's definitely some Caucasian in her as well. Considering how Japanese Hiro and Tadashi look despite obviously being of mixed race themselves, I decided Professor Ito's actually half and half himself and Mary(s) is actually only about a quarter Japanese.


	2. Moving Pieces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay. I have a ton written for this series but I don't tend to write in order, so I had to take a bit to figure out what goes where in the timeline that exists only in my head. Then it was my birthday weekend so nothing got done. I hope it's worth the wait. ^_^

"We're not going to be able to use the nicknames out of the suits," Hiro pointed out as everyone took a break just to hang out together. "Not if we want to maintain secret identities. I've nearly called Gogo 'Gogo' in front of several people already."

"You could just call us by our real names," Wasabi suggested.

"Great idea. What are your real names?" There was a pause as they realized Hiro had been introduced to them by their nicknames.

"Wallace Gingers or Wally for short."

Hiro snerked and stated, "Okay, yeah, Wasabi's a _way_ better nickname."

"I know, right?" Fred agreed, throwing an arm around Hiro's shoulders. Wasabi narrowed his eyes at them but Tadashi quickly jumped into the conversation before something could happen.

"Hey, Gogo. Isn't your real name Edith or Ethel or something like that?"

"E. You can call me E. Call me anything else and you'll regret it," Gogo stated fiercely. Tadashi held up his hands in cheerful defeat.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"Okay, so that's everyone except Honey Lemon, right?" Hiro stated more than asked.

"Ooh! Does this mean I can call you Sweet Tea now?" Fred asked with a beaming grin.

Honey Lemon grimaced and responded, "How about not."

"Sweet Tea?" Hiro asked, confused.

"Her name's Honesty," Tadashi tried explaining, only for Honey Lemon to hastily add, "Honesty Lucia Rodriguez. I hate my first name, so my family calls me Lucia and everyone else tends to call me by my last except for you guys."

"Yeah, but if you shorten Honesty, you get Tea, so Sweet Tea," Fred went on. Honey Lemon wrinkled her nose.

"Honey Lemon was the compromise," Tadashi whispered to Hiro.

"Ah," he vocalized before saying louder, "So what should we call you, Honey Lemon? You either need a superhero name or something we can call you in public."

"Not your last name, please. It's too formal," Fred requested, looking pained at the very thought. Honey Lemon sighed and then looked thoughtful.

"Well, I guess you guys can call me Lucia too. You're practically family anyway."

"Aw."

"Great! Now that that's settled-"

"Hold on. You and Baymax need superhero names," Fred insisted.

"I cannot believe I'm saying this, but he's right," Wasabi added.

"Lucky for you, I've thought this through," Fred declared, stalking back and forth with a finger pointing up. "Baymax can be Big Red while Hiro is our Fearless Leader."

"Wait, what?"

"Well, he did take the lead on the thing with Callaghan," Honey Lemon pointed out.

"And with Mazda," Gogo added.

"So we're going to basically admit we're being led by a fourteen-year-old?" Wasabi inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Might as well. We technically are and it will hopefully prevent accusations of reckless endangerment if we're obviously following his lead," Tadashi admitted with a grimace.

"Sick. I'm in charge!" Hiro crowed, only to yelp when Tadashi grabbed him and turned him upside down. "Really? Not cool, bro."

"Just making a point. You have leadership skills and we know it, but you're still underaged. Which means you still have to obey me and Aunt Cass. Or else."

"Yeah, yeah, fine. Now put me down."

Tadashi swung Hiro over the couch and dropped him.

"Oof. Nice. Hey, Baymax? How do you feel about your new superhero identity?"

The robot, who had been standing in the corner observing, blinked and tilted his head.

"I am a robot. I do not feel. But if you wish to change my designation for safety purposes, then that is acceptable."

"Alright! Big Red and Fearless Leader it is!" Fred enthused.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Wow, you sure told him," Yori stated, eyebrows rising. Tadashi had just shown General Schneider to the door of the café, as well as delivered the curt notice the man was now banned from the premises.

"He won't leave me alone. Apparently the military wants Baymax's code and they won't take no for an answer, "Tadashi grouched.

"Well, if he shows up again, we'll show him out. Right, Yori?" Cass stated, trying to cheer her nephew up.

"Yeah, sure," Yori agreed easily. "Never liked the guys in charge of the military anyway. Always struck me as more interested in starting the next war than in stopping it."

"Thanks," Tadashi stated before freezing and then groaning. "As if today couldn't get any worse. I'm going to hide in the kitchen until you get rid of _her_."

Cass blinked as Tadashi fled and glanced at the entry, only to scowl when she saw who was coming in. She quickly moved to intercept the young woman before she could get too far into the café.

"I'm sorry, but I'm pretty certain you're on the list of people banned from this establishment," Cass stated coldly. The girl flinched.

"I... I can't say I'm surprised, but I wasn't planning on buying anything or staying long or... I just wanted to apologize to you and your family. That's all."

"Apologize?" Cass repeated, rather shocked.

"Yes. What I did was wrong. I know it was wrong and I'll understand if... if he doesn't want to see me. I'm sorry I did it. I was in a bad place at the time, and now they have me on meds and I'm seeing a therapist and everything and it will _never_ happen again."

"Good. Now _get out_." The girl winced at Cass's sharp tone but nodded and fled.

"Uh, who was that?" Yori asked, risking asking as Cass started angrily cleaning up a table.

"Tadashi's one and only girlfriend, Kaitlyn. Ex-girlfriend. He broke up with her when he was... sixteen? Yeah, I think he'd just had a birthday. They weren't working out, she decided if she couldn't have him then no one could, and attacked while he was waitering for me. Kept going on about being together forever in death while holding him hostage with a gun. Thank God Mrs. Matsuda's got a mean swing with her cane. That gay couple who lives a few blocks down tackled her after Mrs. Matsuda knocked the gun away and she was put away in juvie. She must be out now that she's an adult and getting help. Good for her, but she's still not welcome here, understand?"

"Yeah, I get it. Don't worry, Miss C," Yori promised. "If I see her or the general again, I'll get rid of them."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Um, Professor? Can I talk to you about switching my partner for the project?" Mary Ito asked. Hiro was also hanging back, hoping to ask for the same thing, although maybe now he couldn't have to. Whose bright idea was it to pair them together on a project? Hell, what math class had projects?

"No," Professor Sullivan replied. "I put you two together to prevent one of your older classmates from taking advantage of either of you or otherwise letting you do all of the work. The fact it will help rein in your rather ridiculous rivalry is just a bonus."

"WHAT?!"

"You heard me. I'm not pairing you two with anyone else. You'll just have to work together," Professor Sullivan stated, folding his arms over his chest while giving the two teenagers in front of him a stern look.

"But we don't even have the same schedule!" Mary protested. "How are we supposed to find time to work together?" Hiro nodded in agreement.

"That's part of growing up; working things out with people who have different schedules. Also, both of you have grown up in a world where it's possible to have meetings with people who aren't even on the same continent, much less the same schedule. Finally, I know for a fact you both have Professor Squires' class after mine and hers doesn't start until two, which gives you both about two hours to have lunch. Why not do lunch meetings?"

Both Hiro and Mary grimaced.

"I suppose I could do that," Mary agreed with ill grace.

"Yeah, I guess," Hiro reluctantly added when Professor Sullivan glared warningly at him.

"Good. I'll see you both next class."

Both Hiro and Mary left, although Hiro muttered as he left, "Meet after his next class?"

"Yeah, I don't want to put up with you more than I have to," Mary agreed before abruptly turning away. Hiro huffed and went to go join his brother and their friends for lunch.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"I'm telling you, there's no way."

"They could be. They're all in the Lovelace Lab now."

"That's just so no one can accuse the board of favoritism towards the Hamadas. I'm telling you, they can't be the Big Heroes."

"Why not?"

"Because if the Nerd Lab was really the Big Heroes, that would mean _Wallace Gingers_ is the guy running around with laser swords. Besides, it would still leave three people unaccounted for, or did you miss the thing where the Hamadas were standing right beside them."

"Okay, you might have a point with that."

"Uh huh. And then there's where the gear came from. Baby Hamada may have designed it but it definitely wasn't made on campus. We would've noticed if the others were making something like that and the baby Hamada was between his lab and his brother's often enough that everyone got glimpses inside and _I_ certainly didn't see any superhero gear laying around. Did you?"

"...No."

"There you go. Unless one of them is secretly a billionaire or something, there's no way the Nerd Lab is the Big Heroes. They might have helped the baby Hamada with some of the designs, but that's about it."

"Dang, you're probably right. Now that I think about it, that pink hero is way prettier than Rodriguez."

Honey Lemon, who'd kind of sort of been eavesdropping when she'd picked up on the conversation happening the next row over in the library stacks, wasn't sure whether to feel insulted or complimented by that last bit. She settled on amused because it served her right for not speaking up by now. Then she blushed when the other guy added, "I don't know. Rodriguez has got it going on, you know?"

Right. Time to go. Still feeling a bit flushed, Honey Lemon gathered her things from the hidden table she'd been studying at - because, while she loved her friends, they were a bit loud and sometimes she just wanted some peace and quiet to work in - and stepped out into the main walkway and almost into the two guys. One of them was already walking the other direction but the other one gave her a once over.

"Well, hello there," he said with a smooth smile and Honey Lemon, who'd already been a bit flushed from embarrassment, blushed harder when she recognized his voice as the one who'd said she 'had it going on'.

"Uh, hi! Sorry for bumping into you."

"It's fine. It's not every day I can claim I got run over by a gorgeous girl," he easily replied. Honey Lemon felt her face get even hotter and suspected she was beet red by this point.

"Oh, uh, thanks! I think..."

"That was definitely a compliment. I'm Ryan, by the way. What's your name?"

She nearly said Honey Lemon but remembered in time that they'd decided to use her nickname for her superhero identity. "Uh, Honesty Lucia Rodriguez. Most people just call me by my last name."

"Honesty?"

"Heh, yeah. My parents wanted virtues but wanted something different from Prudence, Chastity, or Concepción. My older sisters got Trinity and Destiny, my older brothers got Truth and Valor, and I got stuck with Honesty."

"It's a pretty name. Almost as pretty as you."

"Oh. Thank you. I, uh, need to get going. Class, you know."

"Right. See you around, Honesty."

"Right," Honey Lemon agreed before fleeing, all the while telling herself she wasn't actually running away from the cute guy who was interested in her and knowing that she actually really was. How embarrassing. She could take out evil-doers but couldn't even manage to talk to a nice boy. Her abuela would be ashamed. Honey Lemon sighed and headed for the lab. Chemistry had always made her feel better.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"About time you showed up. You've been out of the slammer for ages. No time for the rest of us?" Tsubaki asked. Ran huffed while Botan giggled.

"Why do you care? It wasn't you who got us out," Ayame stated pointedly.

"Not for lack of trying. Our new boss is more interested in information at this point in time than anything else."

"You're new boss? Well, well, _our_ new boss is the one who bailed us out. Has the stupidest name ever, but he's smart. Damn smart, and he's got something coming up, something _big_ , that will give us a crack at one of the Hamadas and possibly the Big Heroes as well. You in?"

All six women exchanged looks.

"Play them both?" Tsubaki suggested with a nasty smirk.

"Of course."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Search pattern one tonight," Hiro decided out loud over their communication system. He relaxed at the sensation of clinging to Baymax's back even as the rest of the team chorused back their agreement. They'd been doing this for a few weeks now, randomly switching up a few pre-decided routes and search patterns for the city, and the streets seemed to be getting safer as a result, although they still hadn't seen hide nor hair of the Fujitas.

"Hm, quiet night tonight," Tadashi mused as they neared the end of their patrol. Hiro had just opened his mouth to agree when the explosion happened. The shock wave threw Baymax off target and they had a rough landing on a nearby rooftop.

"Hiro!" the others called even as Mazda started barking questions over the line.

"I'm fine, but that apartment high-rise is on fire. Mazda, we need firefighters to our location ASAP!"

"On it. Can you help evacuate the building?"

"Way ahead of you," Gogo promised.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Tadashi's heart had leapt into his throat and strangled any words he could have said when the explosion went off right by Hiro and Baymax. He'd blown out his breath in relief when Hiro had quickly responded to their friends' worried cries. Then had come the instructions to evacuate the damaged building and he had something to do.

"The nineteenth and twenty-fifth floors are both on fire," Baymax calmly informed them.

"Right," Hiro agreed before commanding, "Wasabi, you're with Gogo. Get the people who're trying to get out an exit and make sure no one gets trampled. Honey Lemon, try and make the ground a bit safer for jumpers. Make it bouncy or something. Fred, try and catch the ones who try jumping in the wrong spot. Tadashi-"

"I've got the microbots making ladders to the blocked off floors," Tadashi interjected, "but I can only do the areas of the building I can actually see and thus focus on and I can only go so high. I don't have enough microbots to reach anywhere near the top of the building."

"Baymax and I will get the people on the top floors. Just concentrate on what you can do. All of you."

"Right."

The firefighters came while they were working and Tadashi used their ladders to increase the range of both the ladders and his microbots. With people to help herd the crowd, Gogo and Wasabi started reuniting families and helping those with injuries. There was a landing site for Baymax as he flew down from the top of the building with arm loads of desperate people who'd been forced to flee up. One such person, a teenaged girl, broke free of the group and tried running back into the building, only to be stopped by Tadashi. He grimaced at the reminder of his own attempt at something so stupid and was quick to reprimand her.

"Where are you going? You can't go in there! You'll get killed!"

"But I have to! My neighbor didn't let me grab Aiko before dragging me out! She's still in bed! Please, _my baby sister's still in there_!" the girl sobbed.

Tadashi grabbed the girl by her shoulders, turned her so she was facing him, and demanded in a low voice, "Where?" She gave him a startled look but quickly rattled off the information.

"Apartment thirty-twenty-two. It's on the thirtieth floor. The north side of the building."

Tadashi nodded.

"I'm on it. Stay here."

Then Tadashi started moving, informing the firefighters he had been working with what he was about to do so he could start gathering his microbots. He'd need a lot to reach the apartment on the thirtieth floor.

~*~*~*~*~*~

There was thick, black smoke everywhere and she was scared, and she couldn't find her nee-chan anywhere. It was noisy outside, with fire truck lights making the ground as bright as day while sirens sang out. Aiko had tried waving at the firefighters helping people out of their windows lower down, but it didn't look like their ladder could reach Aiko's window. Then something happened down on the ground and a man in white rose into the air until he was right by Aiko's window. She couldn't see his eyes, only the lights from below reflecting off of his helmet, but he had a nice smile.

"Hello," he said, "Are you Aiko?"

"Yes," she answered reluctantly because he was a stranger.

"Your big sister is already down there and she's really worried about you. Will you come down with me?"

Aiko looked down. She couldn't tell if her sister Sonoko was on the ground because everyone looked like ants. So did whatever was holding the man up, but she could see they were actually those little robot things that all of the adults were talking about. A bad man had stolen them and tried hurting people but a group of real superheroes had stopped him and one of them had taken the little robots to do good things with them.

The little robots, Aiko noticed, had been repainted with white and bits of red and purple here and there. Aiko thought they looked much nicer now than when the scary man had them. They looked rounder and eager, like a puppy almost. It also meant the man in white was probably a superhero.

"Yes," she agreed, reaching out to the man, then asking once he'd picked her up, "Are you one of the Big Heroes on TV?"

"Ah. Yes, I am."

"I'm Aiko but you know that. What's your name?"

"My friends call me White Knight," he replied. He sounded odd, like he didn't like his name.

"I like your name," she told him, hoping it would make him feel better. Then they were at the ground and her sister, who was sobbing, "Thank you! Thank you!" over and over, was pulling her from his grasp. She gladly went but turned and shouted, "Thank you, White Knight!" before she could forget her manners. He nodded and went to save more people while Aiko got taken to the ambulance.

A picture of Aiko in his arms would be in the news the next day and Aiko copied and saved it for the rest of her life, because while the adults argued about him keeping the little robots, he would always be Aiko's hero.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The team, still in their suits, collapsed in the debriefing room.

"Ugh, I still smell like smoke," Wasabi complained but even he didn't move as Mazda came into the room.

"We'll let you use the locker rooms in a bit," she promised, "But first we need to debrief you on what exactly happened out there."

"What's there to say? A building exploded on our patrol route and we helped get all the survivors out."

"Are you certain it was an explosion and not just a random fire?"

"Something definitely exploded," Hiro insisted. "It pretty much knocked me and Baymax out of the air. Besides, two entirely separate floors were on fire."

Mazda nodded grimly and said, "The fire chief agrees with you so far. His people still need to finish their investigation but he's already requested police backup in case they stumble across more incendiary devices. As it is, they've already found signs of accelerant but it's all in the public areas of the building: hallways and such, and someone disabled the automatic sprinklers on both of the floors that were on fire."

The team all looked grim at that information but most of them shook their heads when Mazda asked, "Any of you have anything to add?"

"I think it was a message," Fred suddenly spoke up, looking serious.

"What? Why?" Wasabi asked.

"Think about it! A bomb goes off on our patrol route exactly when we're patrolling it? That exact section of it, no less! We were literally going past the building when it exploded. I say it's no coincidence," Fred insisted. "It's typical supervillain behavior: put innocents in danger to prove their point."

"What point is that?" Tadashi asked with a frown. Fred shrugged.

"I dunno. That they know what our patrol routes are?" There was some uncomfortable shifting at that idea.

"Maybe," Mazda conceded, "But it could also be a coincidence. We have no proof either way. We'll change up the patrol routes a bit, however, just in case. And we'll let you know what the firefighters come up with. You're dismissed. Go take a shower."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Thank God it's a weekend and we can sleep in tomorrow," Hiro moaned as he and his brother entered their house and started up the stairs, their hair still damp from their quick shower in the police locker room. Hiro paused before heading up the second set of stairs, the ones leading to their bedroom, however.

"Aunt Cass?" Tadashi asked before Hiro could because, despite the late hour, she was still up and looked nervous.

"Oh, good. You're home. I mean, I knew you would be. I was hoping it would be earlier but I saw the fire in the news so I know why you're late and you're not in trouble or anything and it looks like you're both okay. You're okay, right? Of course you are," she babbled even as she wrung her hands in a nervous gesture. Hiro exchanged a look with Tadashi before they both reached out and started guiding her to a chair.

"Aunt Cass, what's wrong?" She took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh before answering the question.

"I got a phone call today. They're expediting Callaghan's trial. And they want you both there."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiro's (and to a degree, Mary's) schedule is actually from the official book _Hiro's Journal_. He actually does have a World History class with someone names Squires and a math class (Calculus for Engineers, to be precise) with someone named Sullivan. World History is at 2pm Tuesday and Thursday. The math class is before it and is the one with the glitched schedule mentioned last chapter as the book has it starting at 10:30 am and ending at 10pm. Considering all of the other classes on the schedule are an hour and a half with a half-hour minimum leeway between classes, I suspect it was supposed to read 12pm, not 10pm.


	3. Truth, Justice, and Awkward Discussions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay. I got the Sims 4 and some of it's extras, including the one that lets you make a bakery and stuff, and I got distracted. Still am, really. I've been writing while on my lunch breaks at work, but haven't really been typing up what I have. I still have a ton more to type up. But not just yet. Tomorrow's the 4th and I'm spending it w/ family. Have a great 4th, to all my American readers. Everyone else, just enjoy your weekend. ^_^

Truth, Justice, and Awkward Discussions

They were expediting Robert Callaghan's trial for several reasons. To start, he was the first supervillain in recent memory to be tried, the last one having been back when the superhero Mr. Marvelous had last been active a good fifteen years ago. Second, Callaghan's lawyer was pulling the 'right to a speedy trial' card, meaning both sides were scrambling for evidence admissible in court. That was why Hiro and Tadashi were being tapped as witnesses, or so the two lawyers sitting in front of them at their kitchen table explained.

"Look, you outright admitted on the news that you created the tech Callaghan used to attack Krei Tech. You were also at the expo where he stole them. That makes you a material witness," the prosecutor, Mr. Yamada, explained.

"Just the microbots, not the portal," Hiro insisted with a frown from where he sat sandwiched between Aunt Cass and Tadashi, because there was no way he was taking the rap for the portal, "And aren't I underaged?"

"Witnesses _under_ the age of fourteen have to prove capable of testifying on the stand, at least in criminal cases, but not only are you just above the cut-off, I think a known prodigy such as yourself would have trouble convincing anyone you're ineloquent enough that you can't give evidence."

Hiro grimaced but nodded.

"What did you want me for, then?" Tadashi asked because if Hiro was going to be the one explaining what happened during the showcase and no one was aware of their involvement in the mess beyond that...

"Aside from asking that you boys convince at least one of the Big Heroes to act as a witness, nothing on my part," Mr. Yamada admitted.

"I, however, want you as a character witness," the defense, Mr. Speare, stated.

"What?" Tadashi asked flatly.

"By all accounts, you were very close to my client up until... the events in question. That would make you ideal as a character witness."

"You can choose not to, of course," Mr. Yamada quickly interjected. "Character witnesses aren't strictly necessary. And if you happen to know anything that would help the prosecution, I certainly wouldn't turn you down."

The two lawyers glared at each other.

"I think we need time to think about this," Aunt Cass decided. "We'll be in touch with you in a few days." The lawyers thanked her for her hospitality and headed out, although Mr. Speare hung back for a moment.

"Mr. Hamada? Before you make your decision about being a character witness, there's something you should know, something I didn't want to say in front of my colleague."

"What's that?" Tadashi asked, folding his arms over his chest.

"Robert Callaghan plans on pleading guilty, which means that, no matter what you _or_ I do, he's going to prison. The only difference is if it will be for life or if the sentence will be short enough that he'll actually get the chance to spend the last of his years with his daughter."

Mr. Speare left Tadashi with a conflicted expression.

"You're not seriously going to agree to be a character witness, are you?" Hiro demanded. Tadashi sighed and ran a hand over his hair.

"Yes. No. Maybe? I don't know. He'll serve his time one way or the other but this way... He was a good man once. Maybe he can be again. I just don't know if I can face him. He said some nasty things to me while we were fighting at Krei Tech. Things that hurt." Tadashi sighed again and let his hand drop. Aunt Cass came up beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Whatever you decide, we'll support you," she said. 

"Yeah, fine, whatever. Don't expect me to go easy on him when I'm on the stand."

"Don't expect you to," Tadashi promised. Hiro nodded before storming down to their garage. Tadashi sighed and slumped as he left.

"We have a few days. Use them to think about it, okay?" Aunt Cass suggested. 

"Thanks, Aunt Cass. I will."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Hiro was with Fred and Gogo as they tried to find a seat for lunch. Hiro was the only one with the long lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but the others overlapped enough that there was a half hour when everyone was present so they'd need a bigger table. It was now a familiar act, so Gogo blinked in surprise when a girl about Hiro's age suddenly intervened.

"Where are you going?"

"Huh?" Hiro asked intelligently.

"Lunch? Tuesday? After class? Ringing any bells?" the girl inquired with an unimpressed look.

"Oh. Oh! Yeah. Sorry, Mary. I'll see you later, guys. Tell the others I'm not eating lunch with you today, okay?"

Gogo slapped a hand across Fred's open mouth before he could say anything and replied, "Yeah, sure. Have fun." She then dragged him so they would be out of sight as they observed the pair.

"Dude, is the little man on a date?" Fred whispered, wide-eyed and beaming.

"Maybe, but we don't want to discourage it if is. So we'll keep an eye on them, but no getting involved, okay?"

"Right."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"So... any ideas?" Mary asked after she and Hiro found a seat with their lunches.

"No. You?"

"No." There was an awkward silence after that.

"Think while eating?"

"Sure."

Nearly an hour later, the remains of their lunches had been shoved aside, Hiro was doodling idly in the margins of his calculus notebook, and Mary had started making hexaflexagons with the remains of their discarded notes.

"I don't suppose Professor Sullivan would let us do anything on these?" Mary half-heartedly suggested as she played with one of the finished toys.

"Not likely. He said it had to be new," Hiro shot down the idea with a sigh. He tapped his notebook with his pen before wondering, "Maybe we could come up with a new math toy?"

"Well, to do that, we'll have to know what's already out there," Mary replied. "Computer, pull up search."

Hiro's eyes widened as Mary's glasses lenses suddenly turned into a computer screen, albeit backwards from his view point. She drummed her ringed fingers against the table as if typing and words flew across the computer screen before being replaced by pictures.

"Huh. I didn't know that was a math toy," she muttered even as a gesture of her fingers made the pictures move. "How about an equation for mazes? No, that already exists..." Then she realized Hiro was staring and a swipe of her hand minimized the images and moved them to the peripheral of the glasses. "...what?" she asked somewhat belligerently. Then she blinked and drew back when Hiro suddenly leaned into her personal space, an intense look on his face.

"I know these type of glasses exist, but how did you program them to work with the gestures? Are your rings connected to your glasses? Cool! Wait, this is distorted oddly on the edges."

"Hey!" Mary complained as Hiro took her glasses.

"Yeah, definite distortion. Are these prescription?"

"Yes, now give them back!" Mary demanded, leaning across the table to try and grab them only to be foiled by Hiro absently leaning back.

"You got this kind of tech into a pair of prescription glasses? Sick!" Hiro exclaimed as he took a closer look, only to yelp when a hand smacked him upside the head hard while the glasses were snatched out of his hands.

"I _know_ you know better," Tadashi reprimanded with a stern look that softened as he turned to Mary and offered her the glasses back. "Sorry about my boneheaded little brother. He sometimes forgets not everyone likes his paws on everything they make."

"Thank you," Mary replied before adding as she looked them over, "At least he didn't break them like the last guy to take them." 

Hiro winced at being compared to someone who was probably a bully. He opened his mouth to apologize, paused when she suddenly blushed cutely after putting on her glasses and then shook his head because he did _not_ just think Mary Ito was cute before forging on with his apology.

"Sorry. I just... They're really cool. I don't suppose we could do our project on them?" he suggested, because he wanted to make up for his actions now that he was aware of how big of a jerk he'd just been.

"No. I turned in all the specs including the math and everything in order to get into SFIT," Mary replied with a shake of her head.

"Project?" Tadashi began before frowning suddenly and calling, "You guys can come out. I know you're there." Fred, Gogo, Wasabi, and Honey Lemon all came out from their hiding places, all of them except Gogo looking sheepish.

"Wha... you... How long have you guys been there?" Hiro demanded.

"Long enough to know you have really boring dates," Fred declared.

"But you're really cute together!" Honey Lemon loyally added.

"What?!" Hiro and Mary both spluttered in protest.

"We're not dating!"

"There's no way! I prefer more mature men," Mary added with a sniff. Hiro rolled his eyes, but he noted that Mary had glanced at Tadashi and blushed again when she'd mentioned that. Apparently his brother had just gained yet another unwanted admirer.

"What are you guys working on?" Tadashi asked, apparently oblivious to Mary Ito's newly-formed crush.

"Our gen ed math class is making us work on a project together and we have no ideas," Hiro replied, letting his head fall into his arms.

"Ah, the Calculus for Engineers project. Always catches the Freshmen by surprise," Gogo stated fondly.

"You could've warned me," Hiro complained.

"Where's the fun in that? Now quit whining and woman up," Gogo replied. Mary made an odd little noise, not unlike a snort, prompting Gogo to add, "Got a problem?"

"No," Mary denied, shaking her head, "I actually kind of like that phrase, 'Woman up'. How'd you come up with it?" Gogo shrugged.

"Eh, people use 'man up' if they want someone to stand up and quit their bellyaching, but everyone knows women have the higher pain tolerance. Proven fact." Gogo slugged Wasabi in the arm.

"Ow!" he complained, rubbing his arm.

"See?" Gogo pointed out.

"Can you not turn me into your punching bag, please?" Wasabi requested.

"But you've taken the class, right? What did you do?" Mary asked.

"Proved it was theoretically possible for a human-powered bike to reach two hundred kilometers per hour," Gogo stated before blowing a bubble.

"Really? Wow," Mary stated, looking wide-eyed.

"You took the class too, didn't you?" Hiro asked Tadashi.

"I was Gogo's partner for the project," Tadashi replied.

"Oh."

"I know what you guys can do!" Fred announced. "It's the perfect opportunity to come up with a formula to give someone superpowers!"

"Uh, you do know this class is aimed at engineering, right? You know, building things?" Mary replied warily in the face of Fred's enthusiasm.

"Then you can build something to give someone superpowers! Like rocket boots!"

"Actually, rocket boots would be pretty cool," Hiro mused out loud. It would certainly be an advantage if he could safely detach from Baymax in mid-air.

"Please don't tell me we're going to have a repeat of the incident with the cat," Tadashi moaned, flopping forward against the table all dramatically. Hiro snorted and elbowed him.

"Hey, if you hadn't leapt up screaming and broken my remote, Mochi wouldn't have lost control and gone careening into the café and gotten us both in trouble."

"I was _asleep_ in _bed_ and I woke up to a cat hovering over my head. Of course I jumped up and yelled!"

The others snorted and giggled, Mary included, Hiro noted.

"I still think rocket boots are a good idea," Hiro insisted, "And making them for something with two legs instead of four will be harder. Not as much stabilization. Then there's making them still usable as _shoes_."

"Well, it'll probably impress Professor Sullivan," Honey Lemon stated.

"Yeah. It doesn't even have to work. You just have to have the math right," Wasabi added.

"Well, that's a relief," Mary stated even as Hiro rolled his eyes. What was the point of coming up with an idea and not getting it to work?

"I'm Mary Ito, by the way. Who are all of you?"

"Wally. Or Wallace Gingers. Whatever you prefer."

"E," Gogo replied with a snap of her gum.

"Honesty Lucia Rodriguez. Call me Lucia or Rodriguez."

"I'm this bonehead's older brother, Tadashi. Nice to meet you. Hiro talks about you _all the time_ ," Tadashi stated with a sly grin in Hiro's direction. Hiro huffed.

"I do not!"

"Denial!" Honey Lemon sang.

"Ha! Now, if you don't mind, you're interrupting our lunch date. Meeting! I meant meeting!" When his brother and friends just gave each other knowing looks while Mary buried her face in her hands, Hiro threw up his hands and threw in the towel. 

"Gah! I'm not talking to you! I'll see you in class, Mary. Maybe we can figure out the project without these blockheads interfering sometime later." Then he grabbed his stuff and stalked away.

"I'd better go too. Nice to meet you," Mary stated quietly as she also picked up and left the rest of the team alone. 

Gogo popped a bubble and broke the silence by sarcastically stating, "Well, that went well."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Any sign of the Fujitas?" Hiro asked at their next team meeting with Detective Mazda.

"No," Mazda admitted, "but there's been rumors they've started working for Yama's replacement."

"Replacement?" Honey Lemon asked, sounding alarmed.

"Yes. You see, when you take down a big name crime lord in charge of as much as Yama was, there tends to be a lot of upheaval in the underworld in order to determine who's the new top dog. You guys patrolling has helped keep the violence to a minimum but it hasn't stopped someone from stepping up and taking charge, at least according to the word on the streets."

"So who's in charge now?" Wasabi wondered.

"We don't know. The best we're getting are whispers about a 'Mr. Sparkles'."

"Mr. Sparkles?" Hiro repeated incredulously, echoed by his brother and several of their friends. "Seriously?"

"Yep."

"No way! He's dead!" Fred insisted.

"Wait, what?" Gogo inquired as they all turned to look at the fanboy. 

"The one you're thinking of is indeed dead. This is someone else," Mazda informed them as she looked at Fred as well.

"Um, mind sharing with the rest of us?" Tadashi asked.

"Sure. Almost fifteen years ago, my mentor worked with Mr. Marvelous, who was your predecessor. One of the supervillains he ended up fighting against was called Mr. Sparkles, although I'm using the term supervillain loosely when referring to him. That Mr. Sparkles' real name was Harold William 'Billie' Baltz Junior and he had been born into money. A lot of money. Enough that he didn't have to work and eventually grew bored enough to try his hand at supervillainy. 

"As Mr. Sparkles, Harold Baltz Jr. would challenge Mr. Marvelous with complicated and... inane schemes whose linchpin was usually some sort of machine that never worked. He was more of an annoyance than anything, really. The police back then tried slapping him with reckless endangerment charges but since the only person he ever endangered was himself and he had access to several really good lawyers, nothing ever stuck. This his young son made friends at school with one Frederick Lee and everything went to hell in a handbasket."

The team all glanced at Fred, who looked rather grim.

"Wha..." Hiro paused and swallowed before trying again. "What happened?"

"I got kidnapped," Fred admitted with a shrug. "I didn't even realize it at first. I thought it was a regular sleepover and my friend's dad said he'd called my parents and gotten their permission to stay over when, really, they had no clue where I was and were kind of panicking. I didn't know anything was wrong until my friend's dad showed up in a costume, had me stand in front of this weird machine, and got into a fight with Mr. Marvelous. 

"I, uh... don't really remember much more than that, but I started being a lot more careful about picking my friends after that. Oh, and I've been kind of obsessed with superheroes ever since. Nothing like being rescued by a real live one to become permanently enamored, you know? That's Spanish for 'likes a lot', by the way!"

"It's... really not," Honey Lemon gently corrected.

"Wait, how do you know the guy's dead again?" Wasabi wanted to know. Fred winced and looked at Mazda, who took pity on him.

"The machine he just mentioned? Exploded when Mr. Baltz turned it on. Everyone got thrown - which is probably why Fred here doesn't remember everything - and the floor collapsed. Mr. Marvelous only had time to save one person in addition to himself. Mr. Baltz's body was recovered from the wreckage but the guilt at failing to save him is what made Mr. Marvelous officially retire from the superhero gig. It's also partly why you lot have mandatory therapy."

"Ah."

There was silence for a moment as everyone contemplated that before Honey Lemon asked, "Why would a gangster use the man's supervillain name?"

"Honestly? The name 'Mr. Sparkles' means something to the old guard in the underworld because, while the guy died, he still succeeded in taking out a superhero by making Mr. Marvelous retire. Whoever's using the name now is implying that they can take you guys out."

"They can try," Gogo challenged with a frown.

"Right! We're hard to take down!" Fred enthused.

"Yeah, sure," Wasabi agreed.

"What happened to the son?" Tadashi wondered out loud.

"Oh, he's cool. We're still friends," Fred stated with a dismissive wave. "His mom didn't want him following his dad's footsteps and made sure he had a work ethic. He and several other people from his church help out at the same charities I do and when he's not doing that, he works as a cashier at Mally-world. Besides, I'm pretty certain Harry's not some sort of gang member."

There was a snort and everyone looked at Tadashi, who'd slapped a hand over his mouth but was still audibly trying to hold back laughter. Hiro blinked and then started to snicker as well.

"What?" Wasabi asked.

"They seem to find something... humorous," Baymax offered. Both of the Hamada brothers nodded, although they made a valiant effort to restrain themselves. It failed when Hiro caught Tadashi's eye and muttered, "Baltz," which set them off again.

"Wait a minute," Gogo stated, an eyebrow rising. "Fred, is your friend's name _Harry Baltz_?"

"Yep!" Fred agreed, nodding eagerly with a wide grin as everyone else started to chuckle or continued to laugh. "Well, it's actually Harold William Baltz the Third, but we decided the nickname was too good _not_ to use. It's like the most epic pun ever!"

"It's something," Gogo muttered.

"It is kind of funny," Wasabi admitted while Honey Lemon giggled.

"Juvenile humor aside, we do have him on the list of potential suspects, but he's not terribly high up for exactly the reasons Fred said. The guy's a bit too busy doing good for it to be likely he's running a gang. In the meantime, I want you guys to be careful. The last thing we need is someone trying to prove themselves as top dog by trying to off you."

"Agreed."

"Good. Anything else?"

"Yeah," Hiro said, expression turning serious. "What are we going to do about the request for the Big Heroes to act as witnesses at Callaghan's trial?"

"Are they willing to let us do it anonymously? Because I'd rather not perjure myself," Fred stated. Everyone gave him a look. "What? It's a valid question."

"Yes, it is," Tadashi agreed, "and definitely something to ask the lawyers."

"Maybe we shouldn't do it," Honey Lemon suggested in a worried tone.

"But that means they won't have the whole story!" Hiro argued.

"You mean like how he tried to kill us?" Gogo pointed out.

"How do you plan on explaining that without revealing secret identities?" Wasabi wanted to know.

"Right. We need to get our story straight. Lucky for you guys, I've been working on it," Fred stated before sticking out his tongue as he dug into one of the lower pockets of his cargo pants and pulled out some wrinkled and oddly stained papers. He then handed them out. Wasabi grimaced and held his out at arm's length by holding it pinched in one corner between his thumb and forefinger.

"The hell is this?" Gogo asked as she read it over.

"'The Rise of the Big Heroes' by Fredzilla?" Tadashi stated, eyebrows rising as he read what was essentially the bad fanfiction version of their clash with Callaghan.

"I thought you said you _didn't_ want to perjure yourself," Gogo stated bluntly. Fred pouted.

"Come on, guys! Origin story! It has to be awesome!"

"Yeah, well, let's try something a bit closer to the truth, shall we?" Mazda suggested. "In fact, you should probably plead the fifth."

"What?"

"You were technically vigilantes at the time _and_ Hiro's underaged. Then there's your identities. You can't take an oath under a false name. Unless you want to get in trouble, plead the fifth. Better yet, let my people get the paperwork that states you and your testimony is confidential information and you can't testify at all."

"But... what about the stuff only we know?" Honey Lemon asked.

"Unless you're willing to admit who you are and risk potential jail time, nothing you say is admissible in court as evidence. Best you can do is let Hiro as himself claim you told him what happened in order to get him to make your tech, which is technically true so he won't be perjuring himself, although it'll probably be dismissed as hearsay." 

"Well, he can claim he was present at the chase and the Big Heroes formed to save him, which is also technically true," Wasabi suggested. 

Mazda nodded in favor of that but also added, "The rest of it's going to have to be based on the actions that we, the police, can prove he did."

"Right," Hiro agreed before sighing. "No pressure... Tadashi? What did you decide on the character witness thing?"

"Wait, what?" Gogo demanded even as the others gave Tadashi wide-eyed looks. Tadashi winced.

"I've been thinking about agreeing to be a character witness," he admitted. "They did ask and, well... I don't know. I want to see him first before making that decision."

"Good idea," Mazda approved, "But not alone."

~*~*~*~*~*~

They drummed their fingers on the nearest surface as they studied the two boards they'd spent so much time on. The first two bombs in the high-rise had worked beautifully. The Big Heroes had reacted exactly as expected, including changing up their patrol routes. Figuring out the new routes was a pain, of course, but an expected one. They'd already confidently identified the best location for the next bomb and hoped to have the rest of the routes picked out by the time the rest of the bombs were ready. They'd need more chemicals and clocks, of course, but everyone was on the planned time-line... except the Big Heroes.

The Big Heroes were _distracted_. They didn't seem to be looking for the source of the bombs at all, especially since the trial of their first villain had been officially announced. Even the media was in on it as they kept wondering if any of the Big Heroes would be witnesses in said trial instead of wondering who'd attacked the high-rise. One would think they would be focusing on the active threat and not the one already in jail, but apparently not.

While the distraction was understandable - the first of anything always stood out - it was unacceptable. The game couldn't continue without the main players. It looked like they would need to do something... drastic in order to get the Big Heroes to pay attention. They smiled as the idea struck them. They had just the thing... Let them just try to ignore _this_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hexaflexagons are a math toy made out of a strip of paper. Depending on the width of the paper and how many equilateral triangles you can fold it into, it will either have three or six sides despite being flat and two-dimensional. They're a lot of fun to make and play with.
> 
> Mary's glasses are computers in the comics (and have been since before the invention of Google glass and the like). Since technology's upped to the point in our world that just having her glasses be a computer would be kind of... old-fashioned, I had her work out some of the kinks that Google glass and the like have faced, namely interfaces and the fact the people most likely to wear glasses as an accessory also tend to require a prescription. The tech to make rings capable of reading gestures does already exist. The tricky part would be making it work together with optical-grade lenses.
> 
> Pleading the Fifth is a reference to the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution and basically means someone has the right to decline to give information that might incriminate him or her while acting as a witness. It can't really be used to get out of testifying entirely. Testimony that is confidential or privileged, however...
> 
> Also, Harry Baltz's name was entirely on accident, I swear. I knew the background story character was going to be named Baltz and I realized as I was writing the scene that he was going to be related to the cashier from earlier. _Then_ I looked to see what the heck I'd named the cashier. After bursting out laughing, I decided to roll with it.


	4. Girls, Guns, and Explosives

"If we do this..." Hiro said, trailing off as he scribbled on their working diagram.

"We can also do that! And if we change this..." Mary added as she also scribbled on said diagram, changing things further.

"That will fit there! Yes!"

Working with Mary Ito was... amazing. As a rule of thumb, Hiro _didn't_ work well with others. It was a bit of a side effect of being way smarter than the people who were nominally his peers. The team was a bit of an exception and even then it was mostly him leading except where their expertise took precedence. For example, the placement of the buttons and what chemicals went into Honey Lemon's purse were her work, while making it all work was Hiro. With Mary, however, there was a type of synergy he normally only achieved while working with Tadashi.

"This is amazing! We'll definitely get an A!" Mary enthused as she looked over their rough but mostly finished design. Some of the math would need to be double-checked and it would need to be cleaned up, but it looked pretty awesome to Hiro.

"Yeah! I could probably whip up a prototype just from this," Hiro replied, looking up at Mary. 

They were sitting across from each other, although they'd both practically climbed on top of the table in their enthusiasm in order to reach all of the parts of the diagram. Her hair was in a big fluffy ponytail right now, which made her look a year or so older than normal and her eyes were lit with the brilliant fire of an idea going well and, for one long moment, all Hiro wanted to do was press his lips against her sunshine smile. Then he realized what he was thinking, paled, and backed away.

"Is... something wrong?" she inquired with a confused frown.

"No!" Hiro squeaked before coughing and stating in a lower tone, "No, I just remembered that bad joke my friends made about us dating."

"Oh. Yeah," Mary stated, leaning back with a grimace. Hiro wondered if the idea of dating him was really that bad before he quickly slammed a trashcan lid down on that train of thought.

"So... you're going to make these for that Big Hero in purple?" Mary asked after an uncomfortable moment of silence. Hiro latched on to it with the desperation of a drowning man.

"Yeah. I mean, if that's okay with you, it's partly your design too, but I think they might find it useful."

"Fine by me. I've never designed something for a superhero before. What's she like?"

"Wha... you... What makes you think they're a girl?!"

"It's obvious, duh. She's wearing purple and is clearly some sort of tomboy."

"Well, for your information, they're a guy!"

"Really? What guy is _that_ short?"

"He... he just is, okay!" Hiro sputtered, red in the face.

"She's a girl and you just don't want to admit it," Mary insisted, folding her arms across her chest.

"He is not!"

"Oh yeah? Prove it."

"You... gah! I'm not giving away secret identities just because you think someone's a girl when they're not!"

"That just means you can't prove it and they're really are a girl," Mary stated with a smirk.

Hiro clenched his teeth to keep himself from grinding them and hissed, "Let's just change the subject."

"Fine," Mary agreed. After another awkward silence, she finally asked, "So... is your brother dating anyone?"

"Tadashi? He doesn't date. He has no luck with girls. The only ones who like him are crazy and/or evil," Hiro replied, thinking of Kaitlyn and that one Fujita from the roller derby.

"I am _not_ crazy!" Mary stated heatedly. Hiro blinked in confusion.

"I didn't say you were."

"Oh, so I'm evil?! Thanks a lot!" Mary hissed as she grabbed her stuff and stormed off.

"I didn't say that either!" Hiro called to her retreating back before slumping with a sigh. Great.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Tadashi was testing something with Baymax in the break room when Hiro came in, flopped face down onto the couch, and stayed there unmoving.

"It is not recommended to sleep on ones' face as that could lead to suffocation," Baymax advised even as Tadashi walked over with a fondly exasperated expression. He pulled Hiro's head up by the hair and asked, "Bad day?"

"Ugh," Hiro said, rolling his eyes. Tadashi hummed and dropped Hiro's head so his face hit the couch cushions again. Hiro rolled over in response and propped his feet up on the arm of the couch.

"Why are you working on Baymax in here?"

"Because I don't want to give Gogo the opportunity to lock me in my lab," Tadashi replied as he scribbled something down when Baymax tried and failed to pick up the soccer ball because he'd accidentally kicked it out of his reach.

"Is she still mad at you?"

"Furious last I checked, but I'm still not certain if it's that I'm going to be seeing Callaghan or that we decided Wasabi should be my bodyguard."

"Probably the latter more than the former. She knows you're a big enough dork to give someone a chance when you shouldn't, but the idea that she's not good enough to protect you would really torque her off."

"Wasabi's the only one with a weapon that works in small spaces, if barely, aside from me - well, I suppose Honey Lemon can technically work indoors as well, but only if she doesn't make anything melt or explode. Anyway, I can't bring the microbots. They'll make me take off my hat when I go see Callaghan."

"Tell her, not me. I agree Wasabi's the one who should go."

"Right," Tadashi agreed before Hiro quickly cut him off before he could ask the question he obviously wanted to ask.

"Since you're working on him, have you thought about giving Baymax a tracker since he tends to wander off?" Hiro asked. Tadashi blinked.

"He already has a tracker."

"Well, that would have been nice to know!" Hiro complained, tossing his hands above his head only to wince when he accidentally hit the arm of the couch.

"About the trackers..." Tadashi began.

"We're keeping them," Hiro stated with finality. "We all agreed it was a necessity. Right now it's just you and me and apparently Baymax out of the suits, but the others are getting with the program."

"But-"

"Are you planning on letting a bunch of evil roller geisha borrow your phone again?"

"What? No!"

"Then I don't see the problem."

"Fine. So what had you down earlier?" Tadashi replied before quickly switching the subject. Hiro winced and then shrugged.

"I don't get girls," Hiro complained.

"You seem to get Honey Lemon and Gogo just fine," Tadashi pointed out.

"Okay, _fine_ , I get girls. I just don't get Mary Ito."

"Oh? What happened?" Tadashi asked as he set aside his notebook to look at Hiro fully.

"She accused me of calling her crazy and evil and stormed off."

"And did you call her crazy and evil?"

"No!"

"So... who did you call crazy and evil?"

"The girls who like you. You have really bad luck, you know," Hiro informed him. Tadashi grimaced at that, then his eyes widened.

"Wait, she likes me? But she's you're age!" Hiro blinked at Tadashi's exclamation and then winced when he realized exactly what he'd said to tick off Mary. Then he stood up and started pacing.

"Dang, I'm an idiot! Of course she likes you! I mean... look at you! And then I implied the only people who like you are like Kaitlyn and that one creepy Fujita."

"What did you mean, 'look at me'?" Tadashi wanted to know.

"Uh, duh," he replied, gesturing at first himself and then Tadashi and adding, "I mean, how can this compare to all of that?"

Tadashi gave him a weird look that nevertheless spoke volumes about what he thought about Hiro's train of thought.

"This," Tadashi said, gesturing at himself, "Isn't going to impress her as much as this." He tapped Hiro on the forehead. "Impress her with your brains, genius."

"Whoa! What makes you think I want to impress her," Hiro quickly backpedaled. Tadashi gave him an incredulous look.

"Oh, so that _wasn't_ you that came in here pining because you made her mad and weren't sure why."

"Che. No way! I'm just... worried about finishing our project, is all," Hiro defended. Tadashi's look changed to one of disbelief as he shook his head.

"Unbelievable."

"May I ask some questions?" Baymax suddenly spoke up from where he'd gotten the soccer ball stuck in the corner. Hiro shrugged as he plopped back down on the sofa.

"Yeah, go ahead."

"Do you ever feel... nauseous in Mary Ito's presence?"

"Oh, yeah, all the time," Hiro snarked, rolling his eyes. The screen on Baymax's chest lit up and a marked check-box appeared next to the word 'Nausea".

"Do you ever feel heart palpitations that only appear in her presence?"

"Meh, let's go with that." Another line and another marked check-box appeared.

"Have you ever had problems focusing on things when she is present?"

"Nah, I seem to hyper-focus," Hiro replied, starting to take the questions a bit more seriously now that Baymax was continuing with them.

"So you focus on one thing to the exclusion of others?" Baymax tried to clarify.

"Yeah, I guess," Hiro agreed with a shrug.

"Have you ever experienced time dilation in her presence?"

"Are you trying to imply she has her own physics system?" Hiro wondered, eyebrows rising.

"A simple 'yes' or 'no' will suffice," Baymax patiently stated.

"Uh, well, we did get kind of caught up on the project and miss Professor Squires' class once so... yes?" The check-marked list disappeared and Baymax straightened before holding up one finger in that odd way of his.

"Diagnosis complete: you are in love."

Hiro choked on his spit while Tadashi stated, "I'm... pretty certain I didn't program that in you."

"My programming includes learning and emulating human emotions. While learning, I have discovered the emotion known as romantic love is very well documented and has several physiological effects that I have added to my database. These include the sensation of butterflies in the stomach-" Baymax's stomach displayed the list again and highlighted 'Nausea' followed by "Heart Palpitations" and so on down the list.

"-the heart beating faster and even skipping a beat while in the presence of the desired person, trouble focusing on anything that doesn't involve the other person while in their presence, and a sensation of time slowing when together yet it not feeling long enough. Then there are your neurotransmitters."

"What about my neurotransmitters?" Hiro demanded.

"You are... nervous whenever you are about to meet her again, and several neurotransmitters seem involved, particularly the ones responsible for... fear and... elation. After seeing her, you are always calmer and your neurotransmitters suggest... satisfaction. Fulfillment. Excitement."

"We're working on a project together! I always get that way when working on a super cool project," Hiro protested. Baymax blinked and tilted his head.

"My previous scans suggest otherwise. While it is true that your neurotransmitters are similar when coming down from a project, they are not precisely the same and you have never been nervous before starting a project. Once you have an idea, you tend to start immediately. The elation is there, but not the nervousness."

"Look, just... just stop, okay?" Hiro asked, pinching the bridge of his nose while waving a hand at Baymax. He started when Tadashi's hand landed on his shoulder.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Hiro agreed.

"Baymax, I am satisfied with my care," Tadashi informed the robot, who waddled over to his recharging station and collapsed.

"There. Now he can't hear us or interrupt. Now about this whole Mary Ito thing-"

"I'm not in to her! Really, I'm not!" Hiro insisted.

"Okay," Tadashi stated with simple belief, "But if you ever change your mind..."

"I am _not_ going to change my mind," Hiro insisted hotly.

"I said 'if', not 'when'," Tadashi stated reprovingly.

"Sorry."

"Anyway, what I'm trying to say... I... Look, I..." Tadashi halted, ran a hand over his face with a sigh, and then admitted, "Kaitlyn is an excuse for me."

"What?" Hiro asked, wide-eyed.

"She's my excuse for not dating. Which isn't to say she didn't traumatize me, because she did but... dang it, I'm not explaining this well. I didn't want to date her to begin with, okay? I only did because I felt pressured to do so. Then I felt pressured to be her prince charming even though that wasn't who I really was and it made me miserable to pretend. But I kept doing it because I was scared. I was scared of what people would think and do and I was scared of her, long before the, uh, the incident in the café.

"The entire time we were together, I felt coerced and used and... and _trapped_ and I'm terrified of feeling that way again. But I'm also angry that it kept me - is keeping me - from figuring out an important part of myself. I don't know if I'm asexual, aromantic, both, or neither and I don't know if I'll ever figure that out now and ever stop wondering if I'm that way because she made me that way. 

"And if you ever feel the same way - whether it's with Mary Ito or someone else - if you feel pressured to be together or she frightens you or anything like that, don't do it or, if you already have, then get out as soon as you can. But... I don't want you to miss out on something that could be _amazing_ if you just let it be just because _I_ had a bad experience. Okay?"

"Okay," Hiro replied in a small voice, not certain what to do with this information now that Tadashi had laid it all out. If nearly seeing Tadashi die in that fire had driven home that his brother was mortal, then this just cracked the pedestal he'd placed the other on further.

"Just... think on it, okay?" Tadashi suggested.

"Yeah, I will."

"Good," Tadashi said before ruffling Hiro's hair hard enough to make him squawk in protest and bat his hands away. Then Wasabi leaned past the open doorway and peered in.

"You ready to go, Tadashi?" he asked.

Tadashi straightened and asked, "It's that time already?"

"Close enough. We still have to swing by Fred's to pick up my supersuit. Fred's arranged a car and Mazda's got a police escort that's going to meet us there so we don't have to try and force our way through the media circus hanging outside the jail."

"Right," Tadashi agreed before turning to Hiro, "See you later?"

"Of course," Hiro agreed before holding out his fist. Tadashi bumped it with his own and grinned as they both made an exploding noise.

"I'll see you later. And don't forget your last class!"

"Yeah, yeah," Hiro waved him off. Then, once he was gone, Hiro collapsed back onto the couch. He had a lot to think about.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Personal items here," the guard at the desk intoned, pushing over a plain tray with the number fifteen painted on it in black paint that had nearly worn off. Tadashi put his wallet, keys, and a set of screws he'd forgotten he'd pocketed earlier in the tray before sighing and taking off his cap when the guard stared at it pointedly. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to make it look somewhat presentable, before turning to where two more guards were waiting by the door that led further into the jail. He let himself be quickly patted down and then they were leading him through, the younger of the two telling Wasabi, "Don't worry. We'll take care of him from here."

Tadashi met Wasabi's eyes and Wasabi nodded before leaning against the wall with his arms folded to wait, something that didn't surprise Tadashi as he'd seen the look Wasabi had given the filthy waiting room chairs when they'd come in. The fact that it made Wasabi look bigger and more superheroish than him perching on one of the chairs would was probably an advantage.

The door they led Tadashi through was at the end of a hallway that was bifurcated by a wall of mesh grating with a matching door that acted as a check point. After that was a turn down another hall and a room obviously meant for visitors who required a modicum of privacy as they discussed legal matters. It wasn't a private room by any means, but since this was a jail and not a prison, they obviously didn't feel the need for safety measures like a wall of glass with telephones. That would likely change once Callaghan was convicted but for now he was allowed to talk to someone without it being recorded or purposely overheard by a hovering guard.

"Here we go, Mr. Hamada. Give us a moment and he'll be brought right in."

"Thank you."

The wait felt interminable to Tadashi but the clock caged up high on the wall said it hadn't even been five minutes before Callaghan entered the room. Tadashi frowned slightly as he studied the older man. Callaghan seemed to be... resigned, although something in him visibly relaxed when he saw Tadashi.

"Thank you for doing this, Tadashi," Callaghan murmured once they were situated at the table and the guards were a safe distance away.

"Don't thank me yet. This is a just a visit. _Nothing_ has been decided yet," Tadashi stated coolly, although he winced internally. Apparently, he wasn't taking Callaghan's betrayal as well as he'd thought. He'd been so busy calming his friends' and brother's upsets that it wasn't until he was alone facing the man that the ugly combination of hurt, rage, and betrayed trust decided to raise their slimy heads, slither through his blood, and nibble at his brain.

"So you're gathering more data to see if your hypothesis is correct. Smart boy," Callaghan stated with a hint of a proud smile that disappeared quickly to a more solemn expression, an echo from when they'd been student and mentor. Tadashi felt sick, especially considering what the man had told him during the fight at Krei Tech. Not strong enough, not smart enough, _not good enough._ Callaghan obviously realized it was the wrong thing to say, because there was a long, uncomfortable silence until the older man broke it.

"I'm glad it was you and the others who stopped me. I mean, I'm not glad I was caught, but it was rather inevitable. And you got Abigail back. I can't thank you enough for that."

Tadashi looked up from studying the table and asked coolly, "Is that all?"

Robert Callaghan grimaced and opened his mouth, before closing it, and then opening it again to ask with sincere curiosity, "Why are you here?"

Tadashi sighed, ran a hand through his hair while wishing for his cap, and said, "I don't know. I guess... I just wanted to know one thing. Do you regret it? Do you regret what you did at all?"

Callaghan blew out his breath.

"Yes," he replied, "and no. I regret the loss of my old life and I regret being caught and I regret dragging you and your brother and all the rest of your group into my mess and I regret the actions I took to try and get you to back out. But the end result brought my daughter back from what was supposed to be her grave. Because of that, I don't think I can ever entirely regret what happened.

"A better question would be: do I intend on repeating it? The answer is no. A thousand times no. But we can't go back from this point and being behind bars is a small price to pay to know my daughter is alive and well."

"You deserve to be behind bars," Tadashi insisted vehemently, only to grimace at saying what he'd intended to keep private in his head. Callaghan raised an eyebrow but shocked Tadashi by agreeing.

"Yes, I do. I don't deny that. That's why I'm pleading guilty. Your part in this... all I'm asking you to do, is that you help me so that, when I'm old and frail and no longer a threat to anyone anymore, that I'll be allowed to leave here and spend the last of my time with my family."

Tadashi bit his lip and breathed through his nose before asking, "Why me?"

"Of everyone I know, you seemed the least likely to hold a grudge. It's possible I've misjudged that, but you've always been good at giving people a fair chance before," Callaghan replied. Tadashi snorted.

"So this is all I'm good for? Being your patsy. I don't think so." Tadashi stood but didn't get more than a step away from the table before Callaghan's next words brought him to a halt.

"I didn't mean what I said to you. About you not being good enough," Callaghan called. Tadashi paused, then sighed and turned to face Callaghan.

"Then why'd you say it?"

"Because I needed to take you down hard and fast and it was the only way I could think of that didn't involve killing you," Callaghan replied. "You've always been your own worst enemy, Tadashi. Your lack of self-esteem works against you. Even then, it took all I had to keep control of the microbots. If you'd truly believed you could take control of them, I'd have lost any hold I'd had over them earlier. As it was, your self-esteem issues and that robot distracting you were the only reason I managed to get away from the island with the microbots at all.

"I get why you have low self-esteem. I really do. Having your brother out-shine you has to get disheartening sometimes. But you really do need to learn to use it to your advantage more. You got Krei just a minute after beating me because he noticed Hiro but not you, to his detriment. The only reason people walk over you is because you let them."

Tadashi pursed his lips, but nodded, accepting this last bit of advice from his former mentor.

"You know," Callaghan added, "For a little while I thought you and Abigail were... Heh. It was all the fantasies of an old man, I know, but let's just say I would've been proud to call you son."

"I wish I could still say the same," Tadashi replied as he turned to walk out of the room. A loud buzzer-like noise made him stop in confusion right before the full weight of Robert Callaghan drove him to the floor.

"Wha-"

The explosion literally deafened him. His ears were ringing and he was having trouble breathing between the dust filling the room and Callaghan's weight on top on his back. He managed to look up in time to see the two guards enter the room, shouting something that he couldn't make out above the ringing and then there were two barks of noise he could barely hear and Tadashi watched in horror as the guards slumped to the ground, each bleeding from a neat bullet hole in their forehead.

Then Callaghan's weight disappeared from his back at the same time a gun entered Tadashi's field of vision. There was more noise, impossible to make out as everything sounded like he was deep underwater, but going off the gestures made by the gun, he was being ordered to stand up. There was a half-dozen men in some sort of weird armor, their faces covered by helmets and guns in their hands. Fred probably would've compared them to stormtroopers if they hadn't been dressed in gray. Tadashi scrambled to his feet, casting desperate looks around himself and wishing he hadn't left his cap and thus the NCT at home. 

"-told you... tell your boss 'No!' ...not going-" Callaghan was yelling but it sounded distorted and he kept missing chunks of it. His former professor looked livid and was struggling against the hold of two of the six men who'd just entered the room. The man Callaghan was yelling at obviously didn't like what Callaghan was saying, because he stuck him with the hand that was holding his gun. Tadashi's eyes widened at the sight and he stumbled back, only for his butt to hit the wall. Then the volume snapped back into place and Tadashi was nearly overwhelmed by the sounds of sirens and people shouting and screaming and the beeping of the van as it pulled up to the hole in the wall. Then everyone seemed to be focusing on Tadashi and there were hands on his arms and a gun in his face again.

"Leave him alone! It's me you want!" Callaghan shouted, despite the blood flowing down the side of his face.

"Of course we want you," the man who seemed to be in charge calmly informed Callaghan, "but it would be pretty remiss of us to not grab a Hamada while we have the chance."

Then the solid metal door that led into the room seemed to rise off its hinges and plow into two of the men, Wasabi being the driving force as he put his shoulder to it like a linebacker for a really geeky sports team.

"Wasabi, look out!" Tadashi shouted as the startled gunmen started to react. One of them pointed his weapon at Wasabi but Wasabi, with the precision he would become famous for, split the end in half lengthwise with a single sweep of a glowing green blade. Another weapon was aimed at him but Wasabi smoothly cut the end of the barrel clean off. The man holding it wisely dropped it, cursing as the smoldering remains caught the traces of gunpowder in the barrel and made the weapon misfire. 

Everyone ducked but the man holding Tadashi by the arm quickly pulled him upright to use him as a hostage. Wasabi froze and his eyes met Tadashi's. Tadashi glanced at his captor and then back at Wasabi before inclining his head ever so slightly. Wasabi nodded back just as subtly while tensing.

"Whatever you're thinking, you'd better stop!" the man holding Tadashi warned. Wasabi shifted his back foot.

"I said stop!" the man demanded, gun wavering away from Tadashi and towards Wasabi. As soon as that happened, he'd regret it as Tadashi proceeded to show exactly why he had a black belt in karate.

A quick and devastatingly accurate stab by Wasabi with his right blade destroyed the gun before the man could bring it into play and then Tadashi was safely behind Wasabi and the man was running for the back of the van the others had pulled Callaghan into while Wasabi had been occupied saving Tadashi. The man barely made it in time as the van pealed away with a screech of tires.

"Well, shit," Wasabi stated, standing there and staring at the mess.

"What are you waiting for? They're getting away!" Tadashi shouted, moving to leap out of the broken wall and follow the van, only to be pulled back.

"Whoa, there! You're not the one in the supersuit here," Wasabi reminded him, "And I say we get you medical attention. You're bleeding."

"What?" Tadashi asked, surprised. Wasabi gestured at his temple. Tadashi touched the spot gestured at, winced at the throb of pain, and pulled his fingers back when they encountered something warm and sticky and entirely too bright a red for his comfort.

"Medical attention. Now," Wasabi repeated. Tadashi could only nod.

~*~*~*~*~*~ 

A butterfly bandage on his temple was the only sign Tadashi had gone through anything at all, even though his brother and friends all studied him closely to try and catch any other signs, like a bruise or something. If there was, it was hidden under his clothes and agitation.

"I can't believe we let them get away with kidnapping Callaghan," Tadashi was moaning.

"You were out of suit and injured and thus my first priority," Wasabi stated dryly as he gave his friend a look before adding, "Besides, I'm not the fast one. What was I going to do? Chase them down on foot?"

Tadashi slumped with a sigh.

"I know, but this looks really bad, doesn't it? Especially for Callaghan."

"Are you still defending him?" Gogo demanded incredulously.

"Yes! I believed him when he said he was pleading guilty because he deserved to spend time behind bars. But he also really wanted to get out with enough time left to spend it with Abigail. This? Doesn't help him achieve that in any way."

"He's right. Being on the run wouldn't get Callaghan any closer to his daughter and, when he's caught, makes it more likely he won't get out again at all," Fred insisted.

"So you think it's probably an outright kidnapping and not an escape?" Mazda asked from the head of the conference table.

"I can't really see any reason for Callaghan to willingly go," Hiro stated thoughtfully.

"He didn't. They pistol-whipped him, for crying out loud," Tadashi added.

"But who would kidnap him?" Honey Lemon inquired. There was a pause.

"Well, he is a brilliant roboticist."

"And what would these guys do with robots?"

"Well, they did break Callaghan out of jail by taking down the wall to the visiting room. That means these guys have access to explosives, at least one person capable of getting past security cameras long enough to set them, and enough information to know Callaghan was going to be in that room. In fact, it's all too likely they were waiting for someone they knew was connected to Callaghan to show. That level of planning... these aren't just some two-bit thugs," Mazda stated, "But they're also not someone we can take down right now."

"So that's it? We're just going to let them get away?" Hiro demanded.

"Unless you have a way of tracking them that we don't, you're just going to have to wait and let the police do their jobs," Mazda informed them a bit testily. The team subsided at that.

"We need to up the bodyguard visibility again, don't we?" Wasabi mentioned, trying to change the subject.

"I don't think I was the target," Tadashi protested.

"Not a target? They waited until you were in the same room as Callaghan and tried to grab you both!" Gogo challenged.

"They might have just been waiting for someone who was obviously there to visit Callaghan. And, well, Tadashi and I were pretty obvious," Wasabi tried to defend.

"Yeah, yeah," Gogo replied, backing down before adding, "I'm not taking the night shift."

"We'll do the standard one where we put Baymax on the roof at night. Any other scheduling can wait," Hiro insisted, practically laying on the table. Wasabi felt for the kid. The late nights were obviously starting to get to him if he was about to fall asleep now. It was barely half past six in the evening. A knock on the door made Hiro jerk back upright and everyone look at the rookie cop who'd just opened the door, only to freeze at the sight of them.

"Well? What is it?" Mazda prompted.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," the rookie stated nervously, "but you said you wanted anything involving certain people and locations forwarded to you immediately, even if you were off the clock. So, um... here!" The rookie cop handed over a piece of paper with a squeak and fled. Mazda quickly read what it said with a grim look.

"Looks like this day just got even better," she muttered sarcastically before looking up at them and stating, "There was a bomb threat at the Lucky Cat."

"WHAT?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long wait. I actually had most of this written out and waiting to type up ages ago, although some it was like three different versions of Tadashi and Callaghan's talk. I've been a bit distracted by original fiction lately. You guys might even love it as much as I currently am as it's obviously been inspired by Big Hero 6 and some of the characters are even expies (*coughHiroandTadashicough*) but the whole thing is different enough that it definitely qualifies as original. 
> 
> If anyone is interested, I'm looking for some... well, not beta-readers, although if any grammar mistakes or plot holes are noticed, I'd appreciate the heads up. Mostly, the job would entail reading the chapters as they come out, telling me what you think, and basically encouraging me to keep it up until it's done because I work better when I have more people than just me invested in what I'm doing. In exchange you would, of course, get full access to the work before it's even published, acknowledgment in the final work, and, if I can swing it, a free copy of the ebook once it's published. PM me on ffn or email me at the email in my AO3 profile if you're interested in knowing more. 
> 
> And yes, this will still be updated. It's just going to be a bit slower, like every two weeks or so. Thank you for your patience.


	5. Dark Moves In Dark Games

"Aunt Cass!"

"Oh, there you boys are," she exclaimed as she swept Hiro and Tadashi into a hug. Then she gave Tadashi a worried look and asked, "Are you okay? They told me what happened at the jail."

"I'm fine," Tadashi insisted. "I should be asking you that. They said you found a bomb at the café?"

"Yori did. I asked him to take out the trash because it was getting full and when he came back in, he asked what you two had added to the gas line. Considering I've _expressly forbidden_ you from touching that, I knew it wasn't good and evacuated everyone."

"And it's a good thing you did," Mazda stated as she looked up from the report she was reading involving the incident. "It was set to go off at eight sharp."

Everyone inhaled sharply and Hiro murmured, "That's when we would have been out on patrol."

"Yes," Mazda stated grimly before adding, "That's not all. Preliminary reports suggest whoever made it also made the ones that started that apartment fire you all got involved in. It's a small pack of homemade Astrolite and a digital watch attached someplace where it would cause the most damage. Considering how close the houses are packed in that area and the fact putting it on a gas line would've caused one hell of a fireball... a lot of people would have died had this gone off. Although it looks like they planned for it to be found."

"What do you mean?" Hiro demanded.

"Aside from the fact it's unlikely no one would have stepped out the back at least once before eight pm? There was a note." Mazda pulled a baggie out of the case file and held it up so they could all see.

'Come and find me, Big Heroes' the note read in block letters on the back of a business card.

"So it is a message to us. I knew it," Fred stated, slamming his fist into his open palm.

"But how are we supposed to find him? Or her," Wasabi quickly added on the last when Gogo narrowed her eyes at him.

"Well, if they're making homemade Astrolite, they're probably buying a lot of ammonia and bleach," Honey Lemon stated. "Either that, or a lot of acetone and hydrogen peroxide, but bleach is a lot easier to get in bulk so they're probably using the Olin Raschig process and not the ketazine process, which means there's probably traces of salt byproduct. They'll have to get rid of that too. Although I'm impressed they haven't killed themselves making these yet. They might have access to some proper chemistry equipment. ...what?"

"You know how to make homemade bombs?" Gogo asked, eyebrow rising.

"So cool," Fred breathed in awe.

"I'm pretty certain every industrial chemistry major at SFIT knows how," Honey Lemon offered a bit sheepishly.

"You said it could kill you?" Tadashi asked with a frown.

"Well, yeah. If you do it wrong, you've got chlorine gas and everyone knows how deadly that it. But even if you do it _right_ , one of the byproducts is a hydrogen chloride compound and if you breath that in so it mixes with the water in your body..."

Everyone winced at the idea of that because hydrochloric acid in the lungs was not a pretty picture.

"Honestly, the ketazine process is safer but harder to do outside a proper lab," Honey Lemon finished a bit shyly, clutching her phone in front of her like a fig leaf.

"That will certainly help. They also found the numbers four, eight, six, and two etched onto the back of the watch, whatever that means."

Fred, who had been staring open mouthed at the business card once it made its way to him, suddenly whipped out his wallet and started going through it before pulling out a matching business card with a loud, "Aha!"

"Fred, what are you-?"

"Shh!" Fred replied as he put his cell on speak and dialed the number on the card. After three rings, it turned into a disconnect notice.

"Fred-"

"SHH!"

Tadashi subsided with a roll of his eyes. Then the voice changed.

"Please enter code," it cheerfully suggested.

"You said four eight six two?" Fred asked even as he punched them in.

"Wait!" Mazda called out.

There were cries of alarm from further in the building and the whole group ran towards it. It had died down by the time they reached the CSI's part of the building.

"What happened?" Mazda asked with a bark.

"The watch from the bomb suddenly lit up and sparked, even though it's not eight just yet. Thank God we'd already separated it from the rest of the bomb.

"Timer to control when the fluids combine and remote-controlled sparks to allow fine-tuned detonation," Honey Lemon murmured. "Brilliant."

"Dangerous," Wasabi declared with a frown.

"Where did you get that card?" Mazda demanded as she rounded on Fred.

"My friend, Harry. You know, Harry Baltz? He gave it to me the other day. Said this girl had gone through his line with a lot of bleach and told him she was opening her own cleaning business. One of the maid's is off on maternity leave, so he suggested she could act as a temp replacement, except the number didn't work. Then you started talking about bleach and codes and the note's on the exact same card and... well, the Mad Bomber from the Marvelous Max comics always used a cell phone to set off his bombs, so why couldn't this guy?"

"You and your leaps of logic..."

"Why put it on a business card, though?" Tadashi wondered.

"So they wouldn't forget it?" Honey Lemon suggested, "And it gives them an excuse to have the number on them without programming it into a phone. They can just claim they tried calling the business and didn't get an answer."

"And if they give it out to anyone who wants to know why they're buying so many chemicals - and a cleaning company is a pretty damn legitimate excuse - or even just to random people, then there's more than just them calling the number," Mazda finished, "Which makes our job harder because suddenly there's more than one number who tried calling the line. On the plus side, no one but Fred here's probably tried calling more than once."

"Wait. They would've only called once, too, wouldn't they?" Hiro pointed out. "The apartment building fire. They didn't set off the one at our home. Which means they probably won't stand out from the list until they bomb something else."

"So... we have to let them bomb something else before this is of any use to us? Why does that sound like a bad idea?" Wasabi asked rhetorically.

"Because it is," Gogo replied darkly.

"So now what? How are we supposed to find this person?" Hiro asked.

"We keep an eye out. Just like we keep an eye out for whoever the hell nabbed Callaghan. That's about all we can do right now."

~*~*~*~*~*~

It was a dark room, oddly lit, and Callaghan had no clue where it was in location to the city. His hands had been bound behind him and two burly men had hold of his upper arms as they dragged him into the room. A man sat in a high-backed chair, his form thrown into shadow, not that Callaghan knew who he was anyway. All he knew was that, a few days earlier, several of the inmates had approached him saying their boss was interested in him. Callaghan had told them in no uncertain terms that he wasn't interested in their boss nor in what he had to offer. He'd done his crime and now he was going to do his time. Apparently someone couldn't take no for answer.

"Hello, Robert Callaghan. Do you prefer Robert or Callaghan?"

"It's Mr. Callaghan to you," Callaghan growled as he straightened up against the hold on his arms. The man in front of him gave him an amused smile, his teeth startlingly visible in the dim light. 'Black light,' Callaghan thought. Of all the overly dramatic things...

" _Mr._ Callaghan, then," the man replied, his voice dripping with a sort of amused disdain as he stated the title, as if he thought Callaghan's insistence on it was both silly and charming, like a dog doing a trick. "You may call me Mr. Sparkles."

Callaghan paused, an incredulous look forming.

"Yes, I know, but the name has a rather... infamous legacy attached to it and names have power. And when you're trying to take over San Fransokyo from the bottom up, you need all the power you can get."

"I take it that's why I'm here," Callaghan inquired with a scowl.

"Ah, smart man. _Yokai_ is a name with power behind it as well."

"And one I'm not interested in using any longer. As soon as I can, I'm getting out of here and turning myself back in so I can do my time."

"And hoping your time will be short enough you won't die before getting to see your daughter again?"

Callaghan snarled.

"Calm down, Robert. Sorry. _Mr._ Callaghan. And I'm willing to let you do that. The advantage of a mask is the person behind it doesn't have to be the same. There's just one... tiny little drawback," Mr. Sparkles stated as he reached for a box sitting on the table beside him and pulled out a frighteningly familiar mask that glowed in the black light. Callaghan drew back at the sight of it even as he narrowed his eyes.

"Legends require more than just the look. They require the skills. And everyone knows Yokai had his microbots. The same ones the Big Hero called White Knight is using now. I also have to keep in mind that the Big Heroes took out my predecessor, Yama. And the best way to fight fire is with fire." The mask was set down on the table with a click.

"You want the microbots," Callaghan stated.

"Very good, _Mr._ Callaghan. I want any and all information you have on them. How they work, how you make them, _everything_."

"I didn't create them."

"No, but you made more of them; everyone agrees on that. All you have to do is show me how you did that and you're free to go back to your lovely little prison cell," Mr. Sparkles stated, tone of voice sarcastic as he described the cell. Callaghan licked his lips and hated what he was about to do.

"The Hamadas-"

"Are under heavy guard, as evidenced by my people's failed attempt at grabbing one when given the chance."

"But they're the only ones who know how to make the transmitter. Making the microbots? Is easy. It's the control that makes them so brilliant - and so very difficult to replicate. I make the microbots and they'll disappear as fast as I make them because they'll respond to White Knight, not whoever you plan on playing Yokai. How do you think I lost? White Knight had control of the microbots at the same time as I did. The only reason they were responding to me better was because I had more experience, more practice. Even then, I had to struggle to maintain control and, while I was distracted, the others took me out.

"Without a new transmitter, a different one, I'm useless to you. Looks like you wasted a lot of time and effort, _Mr._ Sparkles."

"Well, I guess you're not going to see your daughter again after all," Mr. Sparkles stated simply.

"What?" Callaghan demanded.

"I play the long game, you see, and while you still have a use to me, you're not leaving. I'll figure a way around our little problem with the transmitter eventually. Hopefully by then you'll be a bit more willing to work on the microbots. Until then, I'm fairly certain I can find some for you. Boys, take _Mr._ Callaghan here to his room."

Callaghan roared wordlessly and tried forcing his way out of the grip on his arms. The men were strong, however, and dragged him out without a word even as he cursed them. Then they left him alone in a tiny room, barely a cell, with no windows and left him there.

Back in the room they'd met in, Mr. Sparkles folding his hands together except for the pointer fingers, which he pressed together and tapped against his lips in a rather thoughtful manner.

"Looks like we may have to deal with the Hamadas and their guards a bit soon than later. Pity."

~*~*~*~*~*~

General Schneider was persistent. Tadashi narrowed his eyes and glanced around for a way to avoid the man who apparently couldn't take no for an answer but it was already too late. The man had spotted him.

"Lovely day, isn't it, Mr. Hamada?" the man politely stated even as he fell in step with Tadashi.

"It was. Look, I've already given you my answer. Even if I did agree, it wouldn't do you any good. My programming doesn't work that way. The AI is built around the rules of robotics. You know, the ones that state they can't hurt humans?"

"But I'm sure with a little tweaking there'd be a way around that."

"I'm not tweaking it that way! And I'm not giving you the code so someone else can try tweaking it that way, either! For the last time, my answer is no! Now leave me alone."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Well, General Schneider?"

"Hamada's still refusing to be reasonable. He's turned me down several times, won't listen to reason, and has started to try and avoid me."

"Troublesome."

"If you don't mine me asking, why Hamada? I know his robotics programming is damn impressive but why the push?"

"Agent Zero has been growing... concerned. Apparently Krei has some sort of plan involving the older Hamada. There's also the connection to Robert Callaghan aka Yokai. Callaghan was purposely hiding what Hamada is capable of, something that alarms us. Then there was that incident at the jail breakout. By all accounts, he was nearly kidnapped, not to mention the bomb threat at his home. At this point... We were hoping to have Hamada willingly relocate but we might have to use force for his own good."

"Oh? Why not just tell him the truth?"

"We have no proof, General. And it is true, what we'd like to use his abilities for. At this point, taking a different approach is looking increasingly necessary."

"Do you really think you can remove him from his environment without people noticing?"

"We're the government, General. You of all people should know this isn't the first time we've made someone disappear."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hey, Mary. Uh, sorry about that yesterday. I was just trying to explain why Tadashi doesn't date, not why you're crazy. Wait, that's not right. Dang it, why is this so hard?" Hiro rhetorically asked his bedroom, not that Baymax understood that.

"Methods for apologizing to a loved one include giving them flowers or candy, although an allergy test is recommended first."

"Unbelievable. Tadashi! Your robot is giving me love advice!" Hiro complained as Tadashi stepped out of their shared bathroom, still rubbing a towel through his wet hair. Tadashi paused and asked, "Is it any good?"

Hiro gave him a withering look and debated on stealing the towel his brother had wrapped around his hips before deciding he didn't want to see that _or_ give Baymax any ideas. Besides, Tadashi was out of reach of his bed as he went past into his own space, pulling the sliding screen so he could get dressed with a modicum of privacy.

"So, what were you doing that Baymax thought you needed love advice?" Tadashi asked over the sounds of him opening and closing drawers.

"Nothing," Hiro quickly insisted.

"Oh, really?" Tadashi asked, the sarcasm palpable. Hiro stuck his tongue out at the screen.

"Hey, you guys decent?" Yori suddenly called, coming up the stairs. "You better be up here. I have an astronomy lab and your aunt wanted me to get one of you to take my place and help her out for the rest of the evening. Honestly, I think she's crazy for opening the place the day after a bomb threat but, hey, it's her business."

Baymax, to Hiro's surprise, blocked Yori from getting much past the stairs.

"I am sorry, but according to the information I have recently downloaded, young women are not permitted in the rooms of young men unless they are family or... attached." Hiro saw Yori stiffen and his face go blank.

"Excuse me? What the hell are you implying?" Yori asked coolly even as Hiro sputtered, "What the heck have you been reading?!" Tadashi was already throwing open the sliding door to his half of the room and leaping for Baymax, still only about half-dressed.

"That's enough, Baymax," he ordered as he tried man-handling the robot back. Baymax, however, was already responding to Yori.

"My scans of you indicated you are female-bodied, although your... testosterone levels indicate you are taking supplements," Baymax calmly stated.

"You've been _scanning me_? I'm sorry, but I'm pretty certain you need my permission to do something like that. You definitely need it to disclose it in public. Privacy laws. Look them up," Yori said, smiling that furious smile that showed far too many teeth.

Tadashi winced even as Hiro hissed at him, "I thought you were updating his legal knowledge!"

"It's a work in progress," Tadashi admitted.

"Well, maybe you should work on it a bit more. Because this? Is not cool," Yori stated icily before poking Baymax's chest with a finger and adding, "And for your information, female-bodied doesn't always equal female. Got it?" Baymax tilted his head.

"I do not understand. If you have female parts-"

"Seriously, not helping!" Hiro yelped even as Yori's expression definitely took a dive from sort of smile to outright snarl.

"Stop, Baymax!" Tadashi ordered, "and look up transgendered. Now." Baymax straightened up and blinked.

"Ah. I see. My apologies."

"I am so, so sorry about this, Yori," Tadashi added.

"How about you try apologizing when you're not about to fall out of your pants?" Yori suggested. Tadashi yelped when he realized he hadn't buttoned or zipped his jeans and his boxer briefs were pretty much exposed. While he corrected that, Yori said, "Again, your aunt wants one of you downstairs and I'm out of here."

"Well, that could've gone better," Tadashi sighed as Yori thundered down the stairs.

"Yeah. You know, Aunt Cass is going to kill you if Yori quits over this." Tadashi winced and then looked determined.

"Okay, that's it. Baymax, I need your chip. I was going to let you learn this at your own pace, but it looks like we're going to have to do a full upgrade."

"So I guess that leaves me to help Aunt Cass," Hiro noted as Baymax obeyed, freezing as his port opened and Tadashi took out first the red and then the green chips.

"Yeah. And I'm sorry, but we're not going to be able to patrol tonight with the others. I can't exactly stop in the middle or it will cause problems, like him pointing out vigilantism is illegal."

"Yeah, okay. I'll let the others know."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hey, it's okay," Honey Lemon assured Hiro once he got a break from helping Aunt Cass long enough to call them.

"Yeah. We're all probably going to need time to other things at some point or another," Wasabi agreed, "And if anyone could use a night off, it's you two."

"Three. Baymax is off too," Fred pointed out.

"Right. Crap, how are we supposed to get your slow butts around town?" Gogo wondered.

"You'll think of something. In the meantime, I think I'll work on those rocket shoes Mary and I designed."

"Did Tadashi really agree to let you wear those?"

"Oh, yeah, totally."

"Hiro!"

Hiro froze as his brother's voice rang out.

"Got to go!" And then Hiro's connection was gone, leaving the others to snort and exchange looks.

"Little dude will totally talk Tadashi around," Fred insisted.

"Yeah, but only after Tadashi has a heart attack."

"Come on, patrol. We'll need to change up our formation with our main modes of transport gone."

"Right. I might have some ideas on that," Honey Lemon agreed as the headed out.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

How very interesting. For the first time since they'd started watching, the Hamada brothers were actually home for the evening while the street cameras they'd hacked showed the Big Heroes changing things up because three of their members were missing. While it was possible this was a response to their bomb threat _and_ the attempted kidnapping they'd heard about after the fact, they couldn't see all three missing heroes. Only White Knight seemed to be in the Hamada's vicinity, although they'd only seen the microbots and not the man himself.

They congratulated themselves privately on installing the cameras in addition to the hack job. It made their observation much less obtrusive. Still, it couldn't be a coincidence that the Big Heroes had switched things up on the the very night the Hamadas had stayed home. This bore further watching, especially if they wanted their next bomb to go off with a proper bang.

With that thought, they glanced away from the computer screen they were watching to look at their work-in-progress. They'd been inspired by the Hamada's work and it was going well. The metal fingers of a hand clenched and then relaxed as they looked at it and they smiled. Perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Honey Lemon's chemistry lesson is accurate which means, yes, you can make a bomb out of those substances... and it really is that easy to kill yourself doing so. This is all information easily found by looking through Wikipedia, btw, so I don't feel too guilty sharing it here, but I don't plan on going any more in depth than that, either in the story or in my research. If you absolutely have to know how to make your own homemade bombs, you can do the research (and get yourself put on a government watch list) all by yourself.


End file.
